AIDS is a major health problem in the world with more than 36 million people living with HIV infection. HIV can invade the central nervous system (CNS) infecting resident macrophages, microglial cells, and astrocytes leading to neurologic complications. Although the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has led to a strong reduction of HAD incidence, the prevalenceofminorHADANDHANDstillremainsacommonprobleminAIDSpatients.Natural Killer(NK)cellsplayacriticalroleinimmuneresponsestoCNSinjury.NKcellactivitycontrols CNS autoimmunity and inflammation by their ability to kill proinflammatory microglia. NK cells may also impact CNS physiology by secreting IFN-?. Astrocytes are intimately involved in immunological and inflammatory events occurring in the CNS. The impact of NK-astrocyte interactionsinregulationofimmuneresponseinthebrainispoorlyunderstood.Ourpreliminary data showed that Natural Cytotoxicity Receptor (NCR) NKp44 interacts with a novel ligand expressedonastrocytes.ThereisacriticalneedtounderstandthefunctionalsignificanceofNK cellsintheCNSduringHIVinfectionandtheirinteractionswithastrocytes.Characterizationof this novel ligand for NKp44 could lead to new insight into NK cell mediated immune response against HIV infection in the CNS. In this study, using mammalian expression cloning we will clonethisligandusingNKp44-Fcfusionprotein.Wewillalsoinvestigatethefunctionaloutcome ofNKp44ligandexpressedonastrocytesinteractionwithNKp44inregulatingimmuneresponse mediatedbyNKcells.Here,wewilldeterminetheeffectofNKp44receptor/ligandinteractionon NKcellcytolyticfunctionandIFN-?production.Characterizationofthisnovelligandcouldlead tonewinsightintoNKcellmediatedimmuneresponseagainstHIVinfectionintheCNS.

Public Health Relevance

AIDSisthemajorhealthproblemoftheworld.HIVinfectsbrainandmostofAIDSpatientgets HIV-associatedneurologicaldisorder(HAND).NaturalKiller(NK)cellsplayaroleincontrolling immuneresponseinthebrain.InthisstudywewillcharacterizeanovelmoleculeonAstrocytes thatinteractwithNKcell.Thefindingsmighthelpindevelopmentofnewtherapeuticstrategies toHAND.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Small Research Grants (R03)
Project #
5R03NS101481-02
Application #
9415453
Study Section
Cellular and Molecular Biology of Glia Study Section (CMBG)
Program Officer
Wong, May
Project Start
2017-02-01
Project End
2019-01-31
Budget Start
2018-02-01
Budget End
2019-01-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2018
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of North Texas
Department
Other Basic Sciences
Type
Graduate Schools
DUNS #
110091808
City
Fort Worth
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
76107
Marrufo, Armando M; Mathew, Stephen O; Chaudhary, Pankaj et al. (2018) Blocking LLT1 (CLEC2D, OCIL)-NKRP1A (CD161) interaction enhances natural killer cell-mediated lysis of triple-negative breast cancer cells. Am J Cancer Res 8:1050-1063