PLoS ONE (Jan 2014)

Diversity of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) genotypes and KIR2DL2/3 variants in HCV treatment outcome.

  • Jose Ramón Vidal-Castiñeira,
  • Antonio López-Vázquez,
  • Jesús Martínez-Borra,
  • Pablo Martínez-Camblor,
  • Jesús Prieto,
  • Rosario López-Rodríguez,
  • Paloma Sanz-Cameno,
  • Juan de la Vega,
  • Luis Rodrigo,
  • Rosa Pérez-López,
  • Ramón Pérez-Álvarez,
  • Carlos López-Larrea

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099426
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 6
p. e99426

Abstract

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The aim of this study was to analyse the distribution of KIR haplotypes and the KIR2DL2/3 alleles in chronic HCV-infected patients in order to establish the influence on the response to pegylated interferon plus ribavirin classical treatment. The alleles study of previously associated KIR2DL2/3 showed that KIR2DL2*001 was more frequent in non-SVR (NSVR) (42.2% vs. 27.5%, p<0.05) and KIR2DL3*001 was associated with sustained viral response (SVR) (41.6% vs. 61.2%, p<0.005). The KIR2DL3*001-HLA-C1 association was also significant (24.5% vs. 45.7%, p<0.001). From the frequencies of KIR obtained, 35 genotypes were assigned on the basis of previous studies. The centromeric A/A genotype was more frequent in SVR (44.1% vs. 34.5%, p<0.005) and the centromeric B/B genotype was found to be significantly more frequent in NSVR (20.9% vs. 11.2%, p<0.001). The logic regression model showed the importance of KIR genes in predicting the response to combined treatment, since the positive predictive value (PPV) was improved (from 55.9% to 75.3%) when the analysis of KIR was included in addition to the IFNL3 rs12979860 polymorphism. The study of KIR receptors may be a powerful tool for predicting the combined treatment response in patients with chronic HCV infection in association with the determination of IFNL3 polymorphism.