Instead, they commit to the containment of chronic infections, because depleting CD8+ T cells including TEX during simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection results in rapid increase in viral titers and progression to AIDS (129, 130), suggesting an important role for the residual function of SIV-specific TEX in maintaining a host–pathogen equilibrium and contributing to the containment of the chronic infection. The gene discussed is TEX46; the disease is AIDS.