Our strategy exploited our previous observation that procaspase 8-deficient JB-6 cells reconstituted with HIV protease-resistant procaspase 8 (Casp8RN) do not die following HIV infection, whereas JB-6 cells reconstituted with HIV protease-cleavable wild-type procaspase 8 (Casp8) do die from HIV infection (15). This evidence concerns the gene CASP8 and HIV infectious disease.