Previously, both the NLRP3 and IFI16 inflammasomes have been implicated as innate sensors of HIV-1 infection and drivers of CD4+ T cell depletion using blood and lymphoid-derived CD4+ T cells, respectively, and cell-to-cell transmission was reported to be crucial for IFI16 sensing of abortive HIV transcripts (Doitsh et al., 2014; Galloway et al., 2015; Monroe et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 2021). This evidence concerns the gene IFI16 and HIV-1 infection.