Figure 1

Schematic illustration of the hypothesis. We hypothesize that in human population hA3G mRNA levels (x-axis) follow a Normal distribution that has two major characteristics: 1) the hA3G mRNA levels of most subjects concentrate around the mean value of ū; and, 2) the remaining subjects have values falling on either side of the mean (as a value of "z"). Distribution "a" illustrates HIV-uninfected controls (HIV-). HIV-infected subjects could be stratified into low (HIV+ subset 1), medium (HIV+ subset 2), and high hA3G subsets based on relative hA3G mRNA abundance (HIV+ subset 3). Each group's hA3G levels still follow a Normal distribution (distribution b, c, and d, respectively).