Fig. 4: NK cell stimulation assays.

Assessment of effects of peptides on NK cell activity through incubation of NK cells, peptides, and (A) K562/HLA-E or (B) RMA-S/HLA-E target cells. Peptides were derived from the human or CMV proteomes or are included as positive (VMAPRTLFL, VMAPRTLIL) or negative controls (VMAPQSLLL). Replicates for individual peptides are from different donors, with solid black lines indicating mean values. Stabilization experiments with K562/HLA-E cells were performed with n = 6 biologically independent samples excepting n = 3 for INTS1_260-268, UL120_{71-79, AD169}, and UL120_{71-79, BE/33/2010}, and stabilization experiments with RMA-S/HLA-E cells were performed with n = 3 biologically independent samples excepting n = 2 for ECEL1_269-277, TACR3_226-234, HLA-A_3-11, and UL120_{72-80, Merlin}. Peptides are colored as in Fig. 3, highlighting stabilization effects; in order from most to least stabilizing, the colors are: red, orange, blue, and cyan, with the negative control in gray. Representative gating for NKG2A⁺/NKG2C^- and NKG2A^-/NKG2C⁺ NK cells is shown in Supplemental Fig. 14. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.