However, early studies demonstrated that no matter how long antiretroviral therapy is given and plasma viral levels remain undetectable by standard clinical assays, the infection always returns once therapy is stopped.46, 47 This was found to be due to the presence of a “latent reservoir” of integrated proviral genomes in resting memory CD4+ T. These latent genomes are not transcribed into mRNA and translated in protein to complete the viral lifecycle due to the quiescent state of these cells.48 However, upon cellular activation, transcription and translation can resume. This evidence concerns the gene CD4 and infection.