CD8A and HIV-1 infection: If it is true that CD8+ T cells are only responsible for a minority of infected cell death, this would explain the failure to see a decrease in infected cell death when the CD8+ T cell response is weak such as in individuals with low CD4+ T cell count [8] or following CD8+ T cell depletion in simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected macaques (a model of HIV-1 infection) [9], [10].