Lopinavir

Lopinavir is an antiretroviral drug that inhibits HIV protease. It is used in combination with ritonavir to treat HIV infection.

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HIV protease: An HIV enzyme that cleaves viral polyproteins into functional proteins needed to produce infectious virus particles. Lopinavir binds this enzyme and prevents viral proteins from maturing.
Antiretroviral therapy: Treatment of viral infections using drugs that inhibit viral replication. Lopinavir is used as one component of combination therapy for HIV.
Integrase inhibitor: An antiretroviral drug that blocks HIV integrase, preventing viral DNA from integrating into a host cell’s genome. Unlike lopinavir, this class blocks integration rather than viral protein processing.
HIV drug resistance: The ability of HIV variants to replicate despite exposure to antiretroviral drugs. Resistance mutations can reduce lopinavir’s ability to suppress HIV.
Protease inhibitor: A drug that blocks a protease, an enzyme that breaks proteins into smaller peptides. Lopinavir belongs to this drug class because it targets HIV protease.
Lopinavir/ritonavir: A fixed-dose combination antiretroviral medicine containing lopinavir and ritonavir. This is the formulation in which lopinavir is commonly administered.
Nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor: An antiretroviral drug that mimics a DNA building block and disrupts HIV reverse transcription. This class targets genome copying, not the protease inhibited by lopinavir.
Antiretroviral resistance testing: Laboratory testing that identifies HIV mutations associated with reduced susceptibility to antiretroviral drugs. Results can show whether lopinavir is likely to remain active against a patient’s virus.
Ritonavir: An antiretroviral drug that inhibits HIV protease and strongly inhibits the drug-metabolizing enzyme CYP3A. Low-dose ritonavir inhibits lopinavir metabolism and raises its blood concentration.
Combination antiretroviral therapy: HIV treatment using multiple antiretroviral drugs that target different steps of viral replication. Lopinavir is combined with other antiretrovirals to suppress HIV and limit resistance.