Protease Inhibitors - Keep The Boat Docked

Its another week of midterms, my bed a.k.a the study station looks like a book graveyard. I woke up this morning with a yellow highlighter stuck to my forehead. Nice, lol! So I'm back to posting about school stuff in an effort to stay focused.

The interesting thing about HIV is that when it finally does replicate itself inside your T cell then buds off as a seperate virus particle, its inactive. Yes, inactive and therefore not infectious. At this point the virus is like a boat tied to a pier with a thousand ropes, its stuck and it isnt going anywhere.

There is a problem however, the boat has a stowaway - protease. At some point this stowaway wakes up, grabs a knife out of the kitchen, runs out on deck and cuts all the ropes. Off goes the virus in an infectious state.

Protease inhibitors work by surveying all ships and stealing all of protease's knives. This leaves the boat tied to the dock indefinitely. Well, in theory it does. Protease inhibitors work great in the beginning but at some point their efficacy begins to fade. The problem is that protease, in the beginning is using a chef's knife and in the beginning protease inhibitors take all the chef's knives. Then, at some point, some of the proteases get sneaky and switch to a chinese meat cleaver. Protease inhibitors don't recognize chinese meat cleavers so they leave them alone. Ruh, roh.

All is not lost though. I know they are developing broader band inhibitors, ones that will steal any knife that protease carries. Also, I understand that taking two different inhibitors makes each one more effective in the long run.