Influence Of Kir Genes And Their Hla Ligands In Susceptibility To Dengue In A Population From Southern Brazil

Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) form a group of regulatory molecules that specifically recognise human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I molecules, modulating the cytolytic activity of natural killer cells. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of KIR genes and their class I HLA ligands in susceptibility to dengue fever in a population from southern Brazil through a case-control study. One hundred four subjects with confirmed diagnoses of dengue participated in this study, along with a control group of 172 individuals from the same geographic area. HLA and KIR genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes (PCR-SSOP) and with sequence-specific primer (PCR-SSP) techniques, respectively. Data analysis showed significant differences for the KIR2DS1 (54.8% vs 40.7%, P=0.03), KIR2DS5 (50.0% vs 36.0%, P=0.03) and KIR2DL5 (76.0% vs 56.4%, P=0.001) genes. With regard to KIR-ligand pairs, positive associations with dengue were observed in KIR3DS1-Bw4 (45.2% vs 29.7%, P=0.01), KIR3DL1-Bw4 (80.7% vs 65.1%, P