title: Drug effectiveness explained: the mathematics of antiviral agents for HIV.
abstract: Antiretroviral therapy has improved the quality and length of life of millions of individuals affected by human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). The capacity of these drugs to indefinitely suppress HIV-which has a well-known capacity for escaping antiviral pressures-is surprising. In this issue of Science Translational Medicine, Shen et al. use a combination of mathematical modeling and experiment to examine the potency of anti-HIV drugs. They show that non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors exhibit cooperative dose-response curves-a finding that has implications for the treatment of HIV as well as other viral infections, such as hepatitis C.
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87501, USA. asp@lanl.gov
authors.forename: Alan S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Perelson
authors.forename: Steven G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Deeks
mesh_terms: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006678:HIV / Q000187:drug effects*; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents