Meeting Summary for Keystone Symposia on HIV Cure: Antiretroviral Therapy (ART)-Free Control of HIV Infection in Durban, South Africa, 2025

TL;DR

Scientists met in 2025 to discuss new ways to control HIV without lifelong treatment, focusing on eliminating virus reservoirs and using advanced technologies.

Contribution

The conference highlighted novel strategies and multi-omic technologies for achieving ART-free control or eradication of HIV.

Findings

Multi-omic techniques are advancing understanding of HIV reservoirs.

New therapeutic approaches include broadly neutralizing antibodies and gene therapy.

Experts discussed strategies for durable remission without antiretroviral therapy.

Abstract

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) can effectively control human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication; however, lifelong treatment is required due to viral reservoirs, which fuel viral rebound. This necessitates curative interventions that can achieve either eradication of the reservoir or durable remission off ART. Advances in technology have fostered development of multi-omic techniques encompassing molecular tools, proteomic analyses, imaging, and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven data analysis to understand HIV reservoir biology and persistence. These have informed the investigation of therapeutic interventions such as broadly neutralizing antibodies, latency reversal, immune cell augmentation, antivirals, and gene therapy. From April 7–10, 2025, experts in the field convened at the Keystone Symposia conference, HIV Cure: Antiretroviral Therapy (ART)-Free Control of HIV Infection in Durban, South Africa, to discuss novel strategies for eradication and/or durable ART-free control of HIV.

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