The key difference between ARV and ART is that ARV is an HIV drug that involves a single treatment approach, while ART is an HIV drug that uses a combined treatment approach.
HIV treatment involves medicines that reduce the amount of HIV present in your body. The treatment for HIV is called antiretroviral therapy or ART. This is a combination of HIV medicines. Medicines used to treat HIV are antiretroviral (ARV) medicines. HIV attacks and destroys CD4 cells in the immune system, which help in fighting the infection. HIV medicines help in preventing the multiplication of the viral load. There is no effective cure for HIV; however, through ART and ARV, the viral load in the body is controlled.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is ARV
3. What is ART
4. Similarities – ARV and ART
5. ARV vs ART in Tabular Form
6. Summary – ARV vs ART
What is ARV?
ARV or antiretroviral is a drug that prevents the replication of HIV and reduces the rate of transmission and mortality. ARVs work by blocking different stages of the viral life cycle. Therefore, it prevents the virus from replicating. ARV only uses one drug at a time as treatment. ARVs are of six classes, which depend on the stage of the life cycle they inhibit. With the onset of treatment and after a considerable time with uninterrupted treatment, the viral population will decrease and drop to a point where HIV becomes undetectable. However, this does not mean the viral population is zero; the viral population will be at a stage where the current testing technologies cannot be used to detect it.
Figure 01: ARV
Drugs are attachment inhibitors, nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), protease inhibitors, integrase inhibitors, and pharmacokinetic enhancers. ARV also improves the quality of life.
What is ART?
ART is a treatment procedure for individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) with the use of anti-HIV drugs. In this treatment procedure, a combination drug strategy is used to treat this disease condition. In other words, ART with combination treatment is known as highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART.
Figure 02:ART
ART suppresses the replication of HIV. In ART, combination therapy increases the potency of the drugs and reduces the development of viral resistance to drugs. Many research studies prove the fact that ART reduces the rate of mortality and morbidity rates of HIV-infected individuals. The other benefit of ART is that it reduces the chance of transmission of HIV to a healthy individual due to suppressed HIV replication rates.
What are the Similarities Between ARV and ART?
- ARV and ART are medical treatments related to HIV.
- They are drugs that use against HIV.
- Both ARV and ART drugs directly inhibit the replication of HIV.
- ARV and ART are approved drugs by different drug administration units.
- Research and development play an important role in the development of both ARV and ART.
What is the Difference Between ARV and ART?
ARV is an HIV drug that involves a single treatment approach, while ART is an HIV drug that uses a combined treatment approach. So, this is the key difference between ARV and ART. ARV is an uninterrupted treatment where the viral load is decreased to a point where HIV is not diagnosed, while ART prevents the replication of HIV. Thus, this is another difference between ARV and ART. While ARV improves the quality of life while reducing the effects of HIV, ART reduces the transmission risk of HIV.
The below infographic presents the differences between ARV and ART in tabular form for side by side comparison.
Summary – ARV vs ART
ARV or antiretroviral is a drug that prevents the replication of HIV and reduces the rate of transmission and mortality. ART is a treatment procedure for individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) with the use of anti-HIV drugs. ARV involves a single treatment approach, while ART uses a combined treatment approach. So, this is the key difference between ARV and ART. Many research studies have proven the fact that ART reduces the rate of mortality and morbidity rates of HIV-infected individuals.
Reference:
1. “AIDS/HIV Treatments: ART (Antiretroviral Therapy) Tests, Side Effects, and More.” WebMD.
2. James Myhre, Dennis Sifris. “Classes of Antiretrovirals and How They Work.” Verywell Health.
Image Courtesy:
1. “HIV-drug-classes” By Thomas Splettstoesser – Own work (CC BY 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Antiretroviral Therapy for HIV Infection” By NIAID (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr