HIV-1 adaptation to NK-cell-mediated immune pressure

Recent work has suggested that natural killer (NK) cells contribute to the control of HIV-1 infection through recognition of virally infected cells by both activating and inhibitory killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs). Alter et al. present evidence that NK cells select HIV escape mutants by an as-yet-undefined mechanism. This results in the inhibition of NK cell function, enabling HIV-1 to escape the potential protective role of this inhibitory KIR.