Like, I know antiretrovirals specifically treat HIV, but what makes them different from other antivirals? Aren’t they both just treating viruses?
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They’re treating two different kinds of virus. A retrovirus is a specific kind of virus that delivers genetic code in a specific way. Viruses are the more general class of similar diseases.
Typical viruses replicate themselves using the host’s machinery. As such, antivirals usually target that machinery. Retroviruses bring their own machinery to replicate themselves, and as such it is physically unique from the host’s machinery. Some antiretrovirals more specifically target that unique machinery which is called reverse transcriptase
An antiretroviral is an antiviral, it’s just a very specific kind. A retrovirus is a specific kind of virus in the family *Retroviridae*. One of the distinguishing factors about them is the way they replicate using an enzyme known as reverse transcriptase. Antiretrovirals target this replication process, so they are only useful against a retrovirus, which is why they have that specific name.
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