Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors associate with HIV-1 infection in a narrow-source Han Chinese cohort

Abstract

BackgroundThe HIV pandemic remains the most serious challenge to public health worldwide. The hallmark characteristics of the disease is the eventual failure of the immune system to control opportunistic infections and death. However not everyone who has HIV develops the disease at the same rate and so we are studying how the immune system works to control the virus in those who have been infected for decades and remain relatively healthy without the need of anti-retroviral therapy (ART).MethodsGenomic DNA samples from 513 Chinese Han individuals from Henan province were typed for 15 KIR and 3 HLA class I genes. Genotype frequencies were compared between a village cohort of 261 former plasma donors (SM cohort) infected with HIV-1 through an illegal plasma donor scheme who survived more than 10 years of infection without ART and 252 ethnically-matched healthy controls from a nearby village. KIR and HLA were molecularly typed using a combination of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) and sequence based techniques.ResultsAll 15 KIR genes were observed in the study population at various frequencies. KIR2DL3 was significantly less common in the HIV-1 infected group (95.8% vs 99.2%, p = 0.021). The combination of KIR3DS1 with homozygosity for HLA-Bw4 alleles (the putative ligand for KIR3DS1) was significantly less frequent in the HIV-1 infected group than in the control group (6.0% vs 12.0% respectively, p = 0.023).ConclusionSpecific KIR-HLA compound genotypes associate with differential outcomes to infection and disease progression following exposure to a narrow-source HIV-1.

Population‐specific criterion to distinguish killer cell immunoglobulin‐like receptor genotypes and haplotypes in a large Eastern Han population

“…KIR GFs in the studied population were compared with other populations, as shown in Table 1. The results are similar to the data reported by other studies on Han, [12][13][14][15] showing we obtained the KIR gene distribution of the Eastern Han population. The KIR gene distribution of the Eastern Han is similar to that of the Japanese 24 but different from that of other Asian populations.…”

“…10,11 The Han population was divided into the Northern, Southern, and Eastern Han according to the tribal areas 10 000 years ago. Previous studies have showed the KIR gene diversity between Eastern Han and other Han populations, [12][13][14][15] but these studies were all based on small sample cohorts. Large-population-based studies are needed to determine the KIR diversity in this geographical area.…”

Relationship between KIR genotypes and HLA-ligands with SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Saudi population

“…The involvement of Killer Immunoglobulin-like Receptor (KIR) polymorphisms and the Human Immune response against viral infection has been reported by a significant number of researchers ( Wang et al, 2018 , Chaisri et al, 2019 , van Erp et al, 2019 ).…”

Effects of the killer immunoglobulin–like receptor (KIR) polymorphisms on HIV acquisition: A meta-analysis

“…To date, impact of KIR diversity has been investigated in several human diseases and conditions that include infection, autoimmunity, inflammatory disorders, hematopoietic stem transplantation and reproduction [9]. Recent studies have shown that KIR polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-1 infection and HIV disease progression [10–12]. In addition, 3DL1/S1 locus is unusual in that it shows allelic polymorphisms encoding inhibitory ( 3DL1 ) or activating ( 3DS1 ) receptors [13, 14].…”