“…PIs can be effective components of initial, second-line, and salvage antiretroviral regimens, although elevated blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels, also known as dyslipidemias, can be a problem with some PIs and may develop within weeks to months of starting PI-based therapy (56,61,66,70). Although certain PI-based regimens increase the risk of insulin resistance and diabetes (3,23,46,48), this is unlikely to be a class-wide PI effect and, in certain cases, may have more to do with a regimen's NRTI backbone (6,9,12,28,45,47,69). There is often a higher genetic barrier to resistance to protease inhibitors than to either NNRTIs or integrase inhibitors, and multiple mutations are typically required for protease inhibitors to lose substantial antiviral activity, although exceptions exist (e.g., saquinavir and nelfinavir).…”