CROI Offered Breaking Research, Important Discussions in HIV

The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), held from March 9 to 12, 2025, in San Francisco, California, featured discussions on new treatments and breaking research, as well as ongoing developments in both COVID-19 and HIV.

The conference opened on March 9, with several doctors giving lectures on pathogenesis, persistence, and gene therapy in HIV; the past 40 years of HIV and how treatment has changed and still should change; and how policy and drug use intersect. Frederic D. Bushman, PhD, was recognized with the Bernard Fields Lecture, Rebecca Denison was recognized with the Martin Delaney Presentation, and Adeeba Kamarulzaman, FRACP, MBBS, was recognized with the N’Galy-Mann Lecture. The evening concluded with a performance of “Love Can Build a Bridge" by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.

The conference continued on March 10 with a plenary session about looking for a cure for HIV and the current moment in the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.¹ Oral abstract sessions also took place on Monday, with a session dedicated to maternal-child health and cancer treatment. This session included an update on PURPOSE 1 (NCT04994509), which found that lenacapavir was safe and well tolerated in adolescents aged 16 and 17, with a similar pharmacokinetics makeup compared with adults.² This result offered a new angle on the efficacy of lenacapavir when used as pre-exposure prophylaxis.

The 3 days of CROI were full of new and exciting research that covered HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and COVID-19. | Image credit: artegorov3@gmail - stock.adobe.com

Sessions were held on Tuesday, March 11, that related to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The plenary focused on the acquisition and prevention of HIV in pregnancy and postpartum, and was followed by sessions on new frontiers in the prevention of STIs.³ Machine learning was also a topic of discussion on Tuesday, with several experts speaking about machine-learning tools that can be used in their practice. This included a chat bot that can be used to offer support for those with mental health issues related to HIV, a machine learning model that could predict HIV viral load suppression, and a model that can predict who is at risk of falling out of care for HIV. These models offered a glimpse of what machine learning can be used for to improve care for patients.

The last day of the conference featured a plenary session that focused on both HIV and COVID-19, with the first half dedicated to the causes and consequences of long COVID-19 and the second half dedicated to weight gain in people living with HIV, as more than half of people who are diagnosed with HIV are classified as overweight or obese before starting antiretroviral therapy, which can cause weight gain. The sessions explored how best to address individual needs for these patients, as not all cases of long COVID and weight gain in HIV are the same.

The highlight of Wednesday’s agenda came in the late-breaking session, where new research was presented for the first time. These results included phase 3 resdataults on the efficacy of doravirine/islatravir compared with bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide when used as antiretroviral therapy in patients with HIV. The researchers found that doravirine/islatravir was noninferior to other forms of antiretroviral therapy.^4,5

The 3 days of CROI were full of new and exciting research that covered HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and COVID-19. These presentations of research can help to push field forward as a cure for HIV and methods of preventing other infections are constantly being researched to make the lives of those at risk easier.

References

1. Bonavitacola J. Global status of HIV/AIDS pandemic takes center stage in opening session. AJMC^®. March 10, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://www.ajmc.com/view/global-status-of-hiv-aids-pandemic-takes-center-stage-in-opening-session
2. Gill K, Ndlovu N, Brumskine W, et al. Lenacapavir pharmacokinetics, safety, and efficacy in adolescents and adults in PURPOSE 1. Presented at: Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections 2025; March 9-12, 2025; San Francisco, CA. Abstract 120.
3. Bonavitacola J. Implementation, adherence to doxyPEP remains low in at-risk groups. AJMC^®. March 12, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://www.ajmc.com/view/implementation-adherence-to-doxypep-remains-low-in-at-risk-groups
4. Shaw M, Colson A. Advancing HIV care with doravirine and islatravir: Q&A with Amy Colson, MD, MPH. AJMC^®. March 12, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://www.ajmc.com/view/advancing-hiv-care-with-doravirine-and-islatravir-q-a-with-amy-colson-md-mph
5. Bonavitacola J. Late-breaking antiviral session features phase 3 results on efficacy of doravirine/islatravir. AJMC^®. March 13, 2025. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://www.ajmc.com/view/late-breaking-antiviral-session-features-phase-3-results-on-efficacy-of-dor-isl