Zidovudine

Zidovudine is a thymidine-analogue nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor used in combination antiretroviral therapy for HIV and to prevent perinatal transmission.

Nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors: Antiretroviral drugs that mimic nucleosides and inhibit viral reverse transcriptase. Zidovudine belongs to this drug class and shares its chain-termination mechanism.
Antiretroviral therapy: The use of medicines that suppress retroviral replication, especially in HIV infection. Zidovudine is used as one component of multidrug HIV treatment.
Jerome Horwitz: An American chemist who synthesized zidovudine in the 1960s while researching potential anticancer drugs. Horwitz first synthesized the compound decades before its HIV use.
AIDS activism: Collective political and social action addressing the AIDS epidemic, treatment access, and affected communities. Activists challenged the pace, design, and access conditions surrounding early zidovudine treatment.
Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate: A nucleotide reverse-transcriptase inhibitor used in HIV treatment and prevention. It offers an alternative backbone drug with a different toxicity profile and dosing schedule.
Reverse transcriptase: An enzyme that synthesizes DNA from an RNA template. Zidovudine targets this HIV enzyme during viral genome copying.
Combination antiretroviral therapy: HIV treatment using multiple antiretroviral drugs that target different stages or mechanisms. Combining zidovudine with other drugs improves suppression and limits resistance.
Burroughs Wellcome: A British pharmaceutical company that developed zidovudine as an HIV treatment. The company advanced the compound into clinical testing and marketed it as AZT.
AIDS Drug Assistance Program: A United States program that helps eligible people with HIV obtain medications and related services. High drug costs made public assistance central to access to zidovudine and other treatments.
Abacavir: A nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor used in combination treatment of HIV. It is another nucleoside analogue, but has distinct resistance patterns and hypersensitivity risks.

Linked from 6 pages