Abstract
Natural killer (NK) cells respond rapidly in early HIV-1 infection. HIV-1 prevention and control strategies harnessing NK cells could be enabled by mechanistic understanding of how NK cells recognize HIV-infected T cells. Here, we profiled the phenotype of human primary NK cells responsive to autologous newly HIV-infected CD4 T cells in vitro. We characterized the patterns of NK cell ligand expression on CD4 T cells at baseline and after infection with a panel of transmitted/founder HIV-1 strains to identify key receptor-ligand pairings. CRISPR editing of CD4 T cells to knock out the NKp30 ligand B7-H6, or the NKG2D ligand MICB reduced NK cell responses to HIV-infected cells in some donors. Blockade of NKp30 or NKG2D on NK cells compromised their specificity of killing HIV-infected cells. Collectively, we identified receptor-ligand pairs including NKp30:B7-H6 and NKG2D:MICB that contribute to NK cell recognition of HIV-infected cells.