As proof-of-principle, we investigated the presence of three sncRNA contigs (contig 2, located in the conserved LTR region, and contigs 43 and 58 both located in env, Additional file 3: Table S3) in CD8+ T-cell depleted PBMC from HIV-1 uninfected donors infected with five unrelated patient-derived primary virus isolates, which were obtained during acute HIV-1 infection [23]. Here, CD8A is linked to HIV-1 infection.