What does azidothymidine mean?
Azidothymidine — better known by its abbreviation AZT and by its generic name zidovudine — is a synthetic antiviral medication belonging to the class of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. Structurally, it mimics the naturally occurring DNA building block thymidine, but once incorporated into viral DNA by the enzyme reverse transcriptase, it halts further chain elongation, thereby blocking replication of HIV. Originally synthesized in the 1960s as a potential anticancer agent, it was repurposed and became the first antiretroviral drug approved for treating AIDS, receiving FDA approval in 1987. Although early monotherapy with high-dose AZT caused notable side effects, the drug transformed HIV care and laid the groundwork for the modern combination therapies that render the infection manageable today.
nounAzidothymidine (commonly abbreviated AZT) is an antiviral drug — a synthetic nucleoside analogue of thymidine — used primarily to treat HIV infection by inhibiting the enzyme reverse transcriptase.
- An antiretroviral drug (a thymidine analogue) that inhibits HIV reverse transcriptase and is used in the treatment of AIDS and HIV infection; also called zidovudine or AZT.
"The introduction of azidothymidine in the late 1980s marked the first effective treatment for HIV."
"Azidothymidine was granted approval by the FDA in 1987 after remarkably fast clinical trials."
"Early regimens relied on high doses of azidothymidine, which produced significant side effects before combination therapy emerged."
Rarely pluralized, since the word refers to a specific chemical substance rather than countable objects; any plural use would be unusual and typically confined to specialized contexts.
"The laboratory compared the activity of several azidothymidines derived from different synthetic pathways."
A drug once synthesized in the 1960s as a failed cancer treatment became, two decades later, the very first medicine to turn HIV from a death sentence into a manageable disease.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of azidothymidine
Azidothymidine takes its name directly from its chemistry: 'azido' refers to the azide functional group (–N₃) attached to the molecule, combined with 'thymidine', a nucleoside derived from thymine, itself rooted in Greek 'thymos'. The compound was first synthesized by Jerome Horwitz and colleagues at Wayne State University in Detroit in the mid-1960s during research into potential cancer treatments. Its related terms — thymidine, nucleoside, and retrovirus — all belong to the vocabulary of molecular biology that developed alongside it in the twentieth century.
How azidothymidine is actually used
Azidothymidine is a technical term used mainly in medical, pharmacological, and historical contexts. In everyday medical writing it is usually abbreviated as AZT, while its official generic drug name is zidovudine. It carries strong historical associations with the early years of the AIDS epidemic, when it was the only approved antiretroviral available.
Easily confused with azidothymidine
Zidovudine is simply the generic (non-proprietary) name for the same compound known chemically as azidothymidine.
Thymidine is a natural DNA nucleoside that azidothymidine mimics structurally, but unlike thymidine it terminates DNA chain elongation.