Furthermore, the results indicate that NK cell subsets and the expression of NKG2X receptors are severely impacted by chronic HIV infection since HIV infected individuals, and individuals with high viral loads (HH individuals) in particular, showed a loss of CD56bright and an increase of the terminally-differentiated adaptive NK cells (characterized here as CD56dimCD16+CD57+). The gene discussed is B3GAT1; the disease is HIV infectious disease.