ROS toxicity interacts with the mitochondrial-associated inflammasome, which promotes the binding between absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2) and mtDNA, where caspase 1, known to mediate pyroptosis that contributes to the death of over 95% of quiescent CD4+T cells by abortive viral infection, is further activated (76, 77). Here, CD4 is linked to viral infectious disease.