Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), for example, encodes several viral proteins and miRNAs that interfere with NKG2D-ligand expression [(12–14) and references therein], yet MICA*008, was resistant to the MICA binding viral protein UL142 (15, 16), and was not downregulated upon infection with HCMV strain AD169VarS (17, 18). Here, MICA is linked to infection.