On the basis of previous literature findings, we could hypothesise that HIV-infected patients with a first HIV diagnosis late in the course of infection display a highly dysregulated immunity with expansion of activated/senescent T-cell phenotypes and contraction of central memory cells; in this context, loss of CD127 on T cells following immune activation determines a proapoptotic signal with reinforcement of CD4 declining and disease progression. The gene discussed is CD4; the disease is infection.