nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor
- noun
- /ˈnjuːkliəˌsaɪd rɪˈvɜrs trænˈskrɪpteɪs ɪnˈhɪbɪtər/
- Specialized
:
inhibidor de transcriptasa inversa de nucleósidos
- Research shows that nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors significantly reduce the viral load in HIV-positive individuals.
Examples
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Doctors often prescribe nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors to help manage patients' HIV infections effectively.
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Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors are essential in the treatment of HIV, as they prevent the virus from replicating.
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However, all nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors carry the risk of lactic acidosis and severe hepatomegaly.
Academic text (2005)
Synonyms
4
3.7
A medicine that stops viruses from growing in the body
A drug that stops HIV from copying itself by making its new DNA incomplete
A drug that stops an enzyme viruses like HIV use to copy their genes
Surface Forms
Morphology
nucleoside + reverse + transcriptase + inhibitor
The noun phrase is compositionally transparent: 'inhibitor' names a substance that inhibits, 'reverse transcriptase' identifies the enzyme being inhibited, and 'nucleoside' specifies the type of inhibitor. Although the term is technical, a learner who knows the constituent words can infer it refers to a nucleoside-type substance (a drug) that blocks the reverse transcriptase enzyme, even if they cannot derive detailed pharmacological mechanisms.
Etymology
Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor gives a simple picture: small blocks called nucleosides are used by a copying machine, reverse transcriptase, to build the virus's DNA, and an inhibitor is like a bad block that stops the machine. So the name refers to drugs that 'stop' that copying machine and keep the virus from making new copies.