**7. Integrase inhibitors**

Integrase is the viral enzyme which catalyzes the integration of DNA derived from virus into the DNA of host cell present in the nucleus and form proactive virus that can be activated to produce viral proteins.

Integrase inhibitors are the type of antiretroviral therapy agents and they rely on the fact that HIV needs integrase enzyme to replicate and the integrase inhibitor drugs blocks the enzymatic action of integrase enzyme and without the help of this enzyme HIV cannot take over T cells to copy itself. The US food and drug administration (FDA) approved the use of integrase inhibitors in year 2007. Raltegravir, dolutegravir, elvitegravir, bictegravir etc. are some marketed drugs of integrase inhibitors are in use. Raltegravir is the first approved integrase inhibitors, is a valuable addition to the drug therapy against multidrug resistance. Dolutegravir and elvitegravir are also present in combination medication such as genvoya (elvitegravir + emtricitabine + tenofovir alafenamide fumarate + cobicistat), stribild (elvitegravir + emtricitabine + tenofovir disoproxil fumarate + cobicistat), triumeq (Dolutegravir + abacavir + lamivudine), juluca (Dolutegravir + rilpivirine) and biktarvy (biktegravir + emtricitabine + tenofovir alafenamide fumarate) [27, 28].
