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

AI Summary

This article summarizes key discussions and insights from the 2025 Keystone Symposia on HIV Cure research held in Durban, South Africa, focused on how to achieve long-term control of HIV without continuous antiretroviral therapy. Scientists, clinicians, and community representatives from around the world shared progress in understanding how the virus persists in the body, how the immune system can be harnessed to control infection, and what new strategies are being tested to reduce or eliminate the need for daily medication. Topics included research into ways to reduce the hidden reservoirs of HIV that remain despite treatment, improvements in vaccines and immune therapies that could help the body suppress the virus on its own, and experiences from clinical trials where people have maintained low virus levels without therapy. Participants emphasized the importance of combining different scientific approaches and learning from both successful and unsuccessful trials to refine future research. The report also highlights discussions about ethical and practical issues in cure research, including how to ensure that new treatments are safe, acceptable to people living with HIV, and accessible in diverse settings, especially in regions most affected by the epidemic like sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, the symposium reinforced that while an HIV “cure” remains a major challenge, scientific advances are steadily improving understanding of the virus and the immune system, bringing closer the goal of achieving durable control of HIV without lifelong medication