TIGIT is upregulated by HIV-1 infection and marks a highly functional adaptive and mature subset of natural killer cells.

OBJECTIVE

Our objective was to investigate the mechanisms that govern natural killer (NK)-cell responses to HIV, with a focus on specific receptor--ligand interactions involved in HIV recognition by NK cells.

DESIGN AND METHODS

We first performed a mass cytometry-based screen of NK-cell receptor expression patterns in healthy controls and HIV individuals. We then focused mechanistic studies on the expression and function of T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains (TIGIT).

RESULTS

The mass cytometry screen revealed that TIGIT is upregulated on NK cells of untreated HIV women, but not in antiretroviral-treated women. TIGIT is an inhibitory receptor that is thought to mark exhausted NK cells; however, blocking TIGIT did not improve anti-HIV NK-cell responses. In fact, the TIGIT ligands CD112 and CD155 were not upregulated on CD4 T cells in vitro or in vivo, providing an explanation for the lack of benefit from TIGIT blockade. TIGIT expression marked a unique subset of NK cells that express significantly higher levels of NK-cell-activating receptors (DNAM-1, NTB-A, 2B4, CD2) and exhibit a mature/adaptive phenotype (CD57, NKG2C, LILRB1, FcRγ, Syk). Furthermore, TIGIT NK cells had increased responses to mock-infected and HIV-infected autologous CD4 T cells, and to PMA/ionomycin, cytokine stimulation and the K562 cancer cell line.

CONCLUSION

TIGIT expression is increased on NK cells from untreated HIV individuals. Although TIGIT does not participate directly to the response to HIV-infected cells, it marks a population of mature/adaptive NK cells with increased functional responses.