| > This treatment does not in fact prevent HIV infection. It prevents infected cells from producing viable virus particles Lenacapavir interferes "with multiple essential steps of the viral lifecycle, including capsid-mediated nuclear uptake of HIV-1 proviral DNA (by blocking nuclear import proteins binding to capsid), virus assembly and release (by interfering with Gag/Gag-Pol functioning, reducing production of capsid protein subunits), and capsid core formation (by disrupting the rate of capsid subunit association, leading to malformed capsids)" [1]. For comparison, tenofovir diphosphate (from Descovy) "inhibits the activity of HIV reverse transcriptase and causes DNA chain termination after getting incorporated into the viral DNA" [2]. Descovy thus works at stage 3 (reverse transcription); Lenacapavir works at stages 3 (integration), 6 (assembly) and 7 (budding) [3]. > it seems very likely that if any patient being treated with this drug ever discontinued it, they could develop HIV quickly from cells that were already infected in their body HIV-uninhibted T cells should be fine clearing these out. IT would be more surprising to see the cells stick around after having been infected. [1] https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=e56... [2] https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/projects/descovy-emtrici... [3] https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/fact-sheets/hiv-li... |
You did not provide any reference showing that cells that are actually infected but inhibited from producing virus through late stage assembly inhibitors are effectively eliminated by the immune system.