A new study shows that in human CD4+ T cells, the YTHDF3 protein is incorporated into HIV particles in a nucleocapsid-dependent manner and is able to reduce viral infectivity during the next infection cycle, while HIV restricts the viral activity of YTHDF3 by cleaving virion-bound YTHDF3 at different sites by HIV protease [137]. The gene discussed is YTHDF3; the disease is infection.