Grant: Operating Grant - PA: HIV/AIDS Bridge Funding - Biomedical/Clinical Stream

Natural killer cells (NK) are white blood cells with a limited set of receptors through which they recognize and kill altered cells. It was previously believed that they were regulated simply through an off switch triggered by certain self-proteins. In recent years, our knowledge of NK has grown such that we now appreciate their positive and negative regulation by a large group of receptors, their specialized education during development, their maturation following activation, their memory features and their specific activity against particular cancers and even viruses. The improved understanding of these features can be used to incorporate NK into novel approaches for preventing or treating infection with viruses, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We are studying factors that affect the ability of memory NK cells expanded in persons infected with the common human herpes virus V, also called cytomegalovirus (CMV), to carry out effector functions related to controlling virus growth and cancers. A better understanding of these factors can lead to new, broadly applicable NK-based strategies to improve human health.