Antiviral drugs other than zidovudine and immunomodulating therapies in human immunodeficiency virus infection. An overview.

Although the management of patients with human immunodeficiency virus infections has focused on the treatment of opportunistic infections, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related cancers in end stages of the disease, therapies now aim at preventing the natural progression of the underlying disease. In addition to zidovudine many investigational drugs are proposed to treat AIDS-related complex patients. Most of these therapies can be divided into two major groups: (1) The first group includes agents with antiretroviral properties: nucleoside analogues, such as 2'-3'-dideoxycytidine and ribavirin, suramin, antimoniotungstate (heteropolyanion-23), foscarnet (phosphonoformate), interferons, peptide T, castanospermine, dextran sulfate, AL721, or ampligen. (2) The second group aims to restore the defective immune system; it includes thymosin (thymopentin), interleukin-2, cyclosporine, plasmapheresis, bone marrow transplantation, inosine, sodium diethyldithiocarbamate, methionine-enkephalin and carrisyn. At present, no drug other than zidovudine has proved as monotherapy to lengthen survival of human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients.