6533b85cfe1ef96bd12bd3a6

RESEARCH PRODUCT

HLA and killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIRs) genotyping in patients with acute viral encephalitis

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// Antonino Tuttolomondo 1 , Claudia Colomba 2 , Danilo Di Bona 6 , Alessandra Casuccio 4 , Domenico Di Raimondo 1 , Giuseppe Clemente 1 , Valentina Arnao 5 , Rosaria Pecoraro 1 , Paolo Ragonese 5 , Anna Aiello 3 , Giulia Accardi 3 , Rosario Maugeri 5 , Carlo Maida 1 , Irene Simonetta 1 , Vittoriano Della Corte 1 , Domenico Gerardo Iacopino 5 , Calogero Caruso 3 , Antonio Cascio 2 and Antonio Pinto 1 on behalf of KIRIIND (KIR Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases) Collaborative Group 1 U.O.C di Medicina Interna con Stroke Care, Dipartimento Biomedico di Medicina Interna e Specialistica (Di.Bi.M.I.S), Universita degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy 2 U.O.C di Malattie Infettive, Dipartimento di Scienze per la Promozione della Salute e Materno Infantile G. D'Alessandro, Universita degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy 3 Dipartimento di Biopatologia e Biotecnologie Mediche, Universita degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy 4 Dipartimento di Scienze per la Promozione della Salute e Materno Infantile “G. D'Alessandro”, Universita degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy 5 Dipartimento di BioMedicina Sperimentale e Neuroscienze Cliniche, Universita degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy 6 School of Allergology, Dipartimento delle Emergenze e Trapianti d'Organo, University of Bari, Bari, Italy Correspondence to: Antonino Tuttolomondo, email: bruno.tuttolomondo@unipa.it Keywords: KIRs; HLA; encephalitis Received: December 11, 2017      Accepted: February 25, 2018      Published: April 03, 2018 ABSTRACT Introduction: The HLA genes, as well as the innate immune KIR genes, are considered relevant determinants of viral outcomes but no study, to our knowledge, has evaluated their role in the clinical setting of acute viral encephalitis. Results: Subjects with acute viral encephalitis in comparison to subjects without acute viral encephalitis showed a significantly higher frequency of 2DL1 KIR gene and AA KIR haplotypes and of HLA-C2 and HLA-A-Bw4 alleles. Subjects without acute viral encephalitis showed a higher frequency of interaction between KIR2DL2 and HLAC1. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed the detrimental effect of HLA-A haplotype and HLA-C1, HLA-A-BW4 HLA-B-BW4 T alleles, whereas multiple logistic regression showed a protective effect of AB+BB KIR haplotype and a detrimental effect of interaction between KIR3DL1 and HLA-A-Bw4. Discussion: Our findings of a lower frequency of activating receptors in patients with acute encephalitis compared to controls could result in a less efficient response of NK cells. This finding could represent a possible pathogenetic explanation of susceptibility to acute symptomatic encephalitis in patients with viral infection from potentially responsible viruses such as Herpes virus. Materials and Methods: 30 Consecutive patients with symptomatic acute viral encephalitis and as controls, 36 consecutive subjects without acute encephalitis were analyzed. The following KIR genes were analyzed, KIR2DL1, 2DL2, 2DL3, 2DL5, 3DL1, 3DL2, 3DL3, 2DL4, 2DS1, 2DS2, 2DS3, 2DS4, 2DS5, 3DS1, 2 pseudogenes (2DP1 and 3DP1) and the common variants of KIR2DL5 (KIR2DL5A, KIR2DL5B).