To investigate the functional capacity of mDC following SIV infection in our two groups of animals we stimulated lymph node cell suspensions taken at intervals before and after infection with 3M-007, a small molecule synthetic agonist of TLR7/8, which, like HIV and SIV RNA, activates mDC through their engagement of TLR8 [25]–[27]. The gene discussed is TLR8; the disease is infection.