I'm not one of our science-brains so can't tell if this is close enough to Judy's work to possibly be of relevance.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21411527
J Virol. 2011 Mar 16. [Epub ahead of print]
Natural killer cells recognize Friend retrovirus-infected erythroid progenitor cells through NKG2D-RAE-1 interactions in vivo.
Ogawa T, Tsuji-Kawahara S, Yuasa T, Kinoshita S, Chikaishi T, Takamura S, Matsumura H, Seya T, Saga T, Miyazawa M.
Natural killer (NK) cells function as early effector cells in innate immune defense against viral infections and also participate in the regulation of normal and malignant hematopoiesis. NK cell activities have been associated with early clearance of viremia in experimental simian immunodeficiency virus and clinical human immunodeficiency virus type-1 infections. We have previously shown that NK cells function as major cytotoxic effector cells in vaccine-induced immune protection against Friend virus (FV)-induced leukemia, and NK cell depletion totally abrogates the above protective immunity. However, how NK cells recognize retrovirus-infected cells remains largely unclear. The present study demonstrates a correlation between the expression of the products of retinoic acid early transcript-1 genes (RAE-1) in target cells and their susceptibility to killing by NK cells isolated from FV-infected animals.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21411527
J Virol. 2011 Mar 16. [Epub ahead of print]
Natural killer cells recognize Friend retrovirus-infected erythroid progenitor cells through NKG2D-RAE-1 interactions in vivo.
Ogawa T, Tsuji-Kawahara S, Yuasa T, Kinoshita S, Chikaishi T, Takamura S, Matsumura H, Seya T, Saga T, Miyazawa M.
Natural killer (NK) cells function as early effector cells in innate immune defense against viral infections and also participate in the regulation of normal and malignant hematopoiesis. NK cell activities have been associated with early clearance of viremia in experimental simian immunodeficiency virus and clinical human immunodeficiency virus type-1 infections. We have previously shown that NK cells function as major cytotoxic effector cells in vaccine-induced immune protection against Friend virus (FV)-induced leukemia, and NK cell depletion totally abrogates the above protective immunity. However, how NK cells recognize retrovirus-infected cells remains largely unclear. The present study demonstrates a correlation between the expression of the products of retinoic acid early transcript-1 genes (RAE-1) in target cells and their susceptibility to killing by NK cells isolated from FV-infected animals.