These analyses are valuable in shedding light on mechanisms that regulate the immune homeostasis, especially in the aviremic phase of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and CD14+ monocytes, and showing how the protective effect of anti-apoptotic proteins, evident during the infection with an up-regulation of these factors in the aviremic phase and a down-regulation during the viremic phase, is significant in modulating HIV disease stages. The gene discussed is CD8A; the disease is infection.