Antiretrovirals

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A class of medications designed to inhibit the replication of retroviruses, primarily used to treat HIV infections and related conditions
2. Drugs that work against retroviruses by targeting various stages of their life cycle, essential in managing HIV and preventing its progression
3. Medications characterized by their ability to prevent retroviral replication, playing a crucial role in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses

Etymology: The word is a plural, the form that names several of these drugs at once. Its singular, "antiretroviral", is built from "anti-", from Ancient Greek "anti" meaning "against", combined with "retroviral", which describes viruses of the retrovirus family. Those viruses take their name from "retro-", a Latin prefix meaning "backward", paired with "virus", a Latin word for poison or slimy liquid, and they earned it because they copy their genetic material in an unusual direction, from RNA back into DNA. Put together, "antiretroviral" literally means "against retroviruses", a description of what the drugs do: they interfere with these viruses as they multiply inside the body. The "anti-" prefix does the same job it does in words like "antibiotic" or "antivirus", marking a substance opposed to a particular kind of agent.

Synonyms: HIV drugs, retroviral inhibitors