Single-cell profiling identifies a CD8 bright CD244 bright Natural Killer cell subset that reflects disease activity in HLA-A29-positive birdshot chorioretinopathy.

Birdshot chorioretinopathy is an inflammatory eye condition strongly associated with MHC-I allele HLA-A29. The striking association with MHC-I suggests involvement of T cells, whereas natural killer (NK) cell involvement remains largely unstudied. Here we show that HLA-A29-positive birdshot chorioretinopathy patients have a skewed NK cell pool containing expanded CD16 positive NK cells which produce more proinflammatory cytokines. These NK cells contain populations that express CD8A which is involved in MHC-I recognition on target cells, display gene signatures indicative of high cytotoxic activity (GZMB, PRF1 and ISG15), and signaling through NK cell receptor CD244 (SH2D1B). Long-term monitoring of a cohort of birdshot chorioretinopathy patients with active disease identifies a population of CD8 ^bright CD244 ^bright NK cells, which rapidly declines to normal levels upon clinical remission following successful treatment. Collectively, these studies implicate CD8 ^bright CD244 ^bright NK cells in birdshot chorioretinopathy.
(© 2024. This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply.)