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Definition

noun

A therapeutic agent used to combat retroviral infection.

Supplement

Antiretroviral drugs are used to manage or control infections caused by retroviruses, e.g. HIV. Examples of antiretroviral drugs are the protease inhibitors that inhibit the activity of protease used by the virus in viral assembly, fusion inhibitors that prevent the virus from binding and entering the host cell, and reverse transcriptase inhibitors that inhibit the activity of the enzyme reverse transcriptase.

Also called:

• antiretroviral agent