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. 2023 Jan;35(1):102416.
doi: 10.1016/j.jksus.2022.102416. Epub 2022 Nov 1.

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

Suliman Alomar  1   2 , Afrah Alkhuriji  2 , Fadwa M Alkhulaifi  3 , Lamjed Mansour  2 , Abdullah Al-Jurayyan  4 , Ghadeer S Aldossari  5 , Aishah Eid Albalawi  6 , Abdullah D Alanazi  7
Affiliations

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

Suliman Alomar et al. J King Saud Univ Sci. 2023 Jan.

Abstract

Aim: To ascertain whether killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) genes polymorphisms and HLA-I ligands are associated with COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: Eighty-seven COVID-19 patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and one hundred and fourteen healthy controls were enrolled in this study for genotyping of the 16 KIR genes, HLA-C1 and -C2 allotypes and HLA-G 14-bp indels polymorphisms using the sequence specific primer polymerase chain reaction (SSP-PCR) method. KIR genotype frequency differences and combination KIR-HLA-C ligand were tested for significance.

Results: Framework genes KIR2DL4, KIR3DL2, KIR3DL3, and KIR3DP2 were present in all individuals. The frequencies of KIR2DL2 and KIR2D4 were higher in COVID-19 positive patients than in healthy individuals. The frequencies of the combination KIR2DL2-HLA-C2 was also significantly higher in patients affected by COVID-19 compared with healthy controls.

Conclusion: It was found that the inhibitory KIR2DL2 gene in isolation or combined with its HLA-C2 ligand could be associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 in the Saudi population.

Keywords: COVID-19; HLA-C1; HLA-C2; HLA-G; KIR; Saudi Population.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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