Editing Misconceptions about HIV/AIDS (section)

===Only a small number of CD4+ T-cells are infected by HIV, not enough to damage the immune system===
Although the fraction of CD4+ T-cells that is infected with HIV at any given time is never high (only a small subset of activated cells serve as ideal targets of infection), several groups have shown that rapid cycles of death of infected cells and infection of new target cells occur throughout the course of the disease.<ref name="Richman, 2000">{{cite journal | doi = 10.1172/JCI9478 | last1 = Richman | first1 = D.D. | year = 2000 | title = Normal physiology and HIV pathophysiology of human T-cell dynamics | journal = J. Clin. Invest. | volume = 105 | issue = 5| pages = 565–66 | pmid = 10712427 | pmc = 292457 }}</ref>  [[Macrophage]]s and other cell types are also infected with HIV and serve as reservoirs for the virus.{{cn|date=January 2021}}

Furthermore, like other viruses, HIV is able to suppress the immune system by secreting proteins that interfere with it. For example, HIV's [[Capsid|coat protein]], [[gp120]], sheds from viral particles and binds to the [[CD4]] receptors of otherwise healthy T-cells; this interferes with the normal function of these signalling receptors. Another HIV protein, [[HIV structure and genome#Genome organization|Tat]], has been demonstrated to suppress T cell activity.{{cn|date=January 2021}}

Infected lymphocytes express the [[Fas ligand]], a cell-surface protein that triggers the death of neighboring uninfected T-cells expressing the [[Fas receptor]].<ref name="Xu, 1999">{{cite journal | doi = 10.1084/jem.189.9.1489 | last1 = Xu | first1 = X.N. | last2 = Laffert | first2 = B. | last3 = Screaton | first3 = G.R. | last4 = Kraft | first4 = M. | last5 = Wolf | first5 = D. | last6 = Kolanus | first6 = W. | last7 = Mongkolsapay | first7 = J. | last8 = McMichael | first8 = A.J. | last9 = Baur | first9 = A.S. |display-authors=etal | year = 1999 | title = Induction of Fas ligand expression by HIV involves the interaction of Nef with the T cell receptor zeta chain | journal = J. Exp. Med. | volume = 189 | issue = 9| pages = 1489–96 | pmid = 10224289 | pmc = 2193060  }}</ref> This "bystander killing" effect shows that great harm can be caused to the immune system even with a limited number of infected cells.{{cn|date=January 2021}}