Pharmacokinetics of Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

The nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) were the first class of compounds discovered to be potent inhibitors of HIV replication (1 and, to date, these drugs remain the backbone of antiretroviral therapy. NRTIs are essentially prodrugs, inactive in their parent form and requiring activation to exert their antiviral effects (2, 3).