PLoS Pathogens (Aug 2006)

KIR/HLA pleiotropism: protection against both HIV and opportunistic infections.

  • Ying Qi,
  • Maureen P Martin,
  • Xiaojiang Gao,
  • Lisa Jacobson,
  • James J Goedert,
  • Susan Buchbinder,
  • Gregory D Kirk,
  • Stephen J O'Brien,
  • John Trowsdale,
  • Mary Carrington

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.0020079
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 8
p. e79

Abstract

Read online

The compound genotype KIR3DS1/HLA-B Bw4-80I, which presumably favors natural killer cell activation, has been implicated in protection against HIV disease. We show that this genotype confers dual protection over the course of HIV disease; early direct containment of HIV viral load, and late specific defense against opportunistic infections, but not AIDS-related malignancies. The double protection of KIR3DS1/Bw4-80I in an etiologically complex disease such as AIDS, along with the disease specificity of its effects is conceptually novel and underscores the intricacy of host immunogenetics against HIV/AIDS.