Treating HIV Infection with Protease Inhibitors

This animation shows how medications called protease inhibitors can be used to treat HIV/AIDS.

HIV uses an enzyme called protease to produce mature viral proteins. Protease can be blocked by drugs called protease inhibitors, which prevent HIV from completing its life cycle. The animation illustrates how one protease inhibitor, ritonavir (also known as Norvir), prevents the maturation of viral proteins inside HIV particles.

This animation is a clip from a 2007 Holiday Lecture Series, AIDS: Evolution of an Epidemic. Depending on students’ background, it may be helpful to pause the animation at various points to discuss different features.