Treatment strategies against human immunodeficiency virus infection or "return to the future"

New therapeutic strategies aiming at an improved management of patients infected by the human immunodeficiency virus are actually based, at least partly, on older concepts and molecules developed since the discovery of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Accordingly, the first antiretroviral drug available zidovudine, after being left over for some time, now is an active component of tritherapies because of its ability to reduce the emergence of the K65R resistance mutation induced by some nucleosidic reverse transcriptase inhibitors. Similarly, the old concept of inhibiting the virus entry in its target cells, that was once developed with soluble recombined CD4, has been revived in the form of fusion inhibitors, such as the already marketed enfuvirtide, and the currently under phase 1 development BMS-488043 and SCH-D. Finally, monotherapy, which was abandoned since the advent of the more powerful tritherapies, has now regained interest with the boosted protease inhibitor lopinavir/ritonavir. (C) 2004 Elsevier SAS. Tous droits reserves.