Despite efficient virological suppression on antiretroviral therapy (ART), people living with HIV (PLWH), experience an increased burden of premature co-morbidities, such as cancer and end-organ disease. With remaining challenges in terms of access to therapy, adherence and potential long-term drug toxicity, improving their long-term healthcare outcome, including new strategies for HIV clearance, remains a global priority. There is, therefore, an ongoing need to better characterize and harness the immune response in order to develop new strategies and supplement current therapeutic approaches for a “functional” cure. Current efforts toward HIV eradication to enhance immune recognition and elimination of persistently infected cells have highlighted the need for an optimized “kill” approach. Natural killer (NK) cells play an important role in antiviral defense and by virtue of their innate and adaptive features hold great promise as a focus of “kill” efforts. Galvanized by advances in the cancer field, NK cell exploitation, represents a transformative approach to augment HIV therapeutic modalities, circumventing many of the limitations inherent to T cell approaches. In this review we will discuss recent advances in our understanding of the development of NK cell adaptive/memory responses in HIV infection and highlight new and exciting opportunities to exploit the beneficial attributes of NK cells for HIV immunotherapy.

尽管对抗逆转录病毒疗法（ART）进行了有效的病毒学抑制，但HIV感染者（PLWH）承受着增加的过早合并症负担，例如癌症和终末器官疾病。在获得治疗，依从性和潜在的长期药物毒性方面仍然存在挑战，因此改善其长期医疗保健效果，包括新的HIV清除策略，仍然是全球优先事项。因此，持续需要更好地表征和利用免疫应答，以开发新的策略并补充当前用于“功能性”治疗的治疗方法。当前为消灭HIV以增强免疫识别和消除持续感染的细胞的努力凸显了对优化的“杀死”方法的需求。天然杀伤（NK）细胞在抗病毒防御中发挥重要作用，并凭借其先天和适应性特征成为“杀伤”工作的重点。NK细胞的开发受到了癌症领域的进步的鼓舞，它代表了一种增加HIV治疗方式的转化方法，从而规避了T细胞方法固有的许多局限性。在这篇综述中，我们将讨论我们对HIV感染中NK细胞适应性/记忆反应的发展了解的最新进展，并重点介绍利用NK细胞对HIV免疫疗法有益的新机遇。代表了一种增强HIV治疗方式的变革性方法，它规避了T细胞方法固有的许多局限性。在这篇综述中，我们将讨论我们对HIV感染中NK细胞适应性/记忆反应的发展了解的最新进展，并强调利用NK细胞用于HIV免疫疗法的有益特性的新的令人兴奋的机会。代表了一种增强HIV治疗方式的变革性方法，它规避了T细胞方法固有的许多局限性。在这篇综述中，我们将讨论我们对HIV感染中NK细胞适应性/记忆反应的发展了解的最新进展，并强调利用NK细胞用于HIV免疫疗法的有益特性的新的令人兴奋的机会。