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Can NK cells purge HIV sanctuaries?

Nature Medicine volume 23, pages 1254–1255 (2017)Cite this article

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A recent study identifies a population of CXCR5+ natural killer (NK) cells patrolling B cell follicles in simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected African green monkeys that might contribute to the lack of disease progression in this nonpathogenic model.

Containment—defined as the action of keeping something harmful within limits—appears to be an approach used by African green monkeys (AGMs) against SIV, for which AGMs are the natural host. Whereas other nonhuman primates, such as macaques, and humans experience continuous destruction of their immune systems when infected with SIV and HIV, respectively, SIV-infected AGMs remain healthy despite high levels of viral replication. In past decades, scientists have tried to understand why AGMs do not experience SIV disease progression in the hope that the AGM immune system might contain the secrets for preventing AIDS. In a recent study in Nature Medicine, Huot et al.1 provide important new insights into the SIV-containment strategies of AGMs. Although in AGMs the virus replicates in many parts of the body, including the intestine, SIV is kept out of a compartment that is critical for the development and maintenance of protective adaptive immunity—the B cell follicles in lymph nodes. The new data suggest that NK cells play a central role in an IL-15-dependent mechanism for the protection of B cell follicles from SIV, which may potentially have implications for future therapeutic approaches targeting the HIV reservoir.

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Figure 1: NK cells in the B cell follicles of SIV-infected AGMs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Heinrich Pette Institute, Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology, Hamburg, Germany

    Madeleine J Bunders & Marcus Altfeld

  2. the Department of Experimental Immunology and the Emma Children's Hospital, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Madeleine J Bunders

  3. the Institute of Immunology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

    Marcus Altfeld

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  1. Madeleine J Bunders
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  2. Marcus Altfeld
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Correspondence to Marcus Altfeld.

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Bunders, M., Altfeld, M. Can NK cells purge HIV sanctuaries?. Nat Med 23, 1254–1255 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4434

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