Association of Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-Like Receptors and Their Cognate Hla Class I Ligands With Susceptibility to Acute Myeloid Leukemia in Iranian Patients Publisher Pubmed



Mirzazadeh S¹ ; Bemani P² ; Halimi H¹ ; Sanaee MN³ ; Karami N¹ ; Ramzi M³ ; Farjadian S¹ Show Affiliations
Source: Scientific Reports Published:2023

Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is one of the most prevalent leukemia in adults. Among the various NK receptors, killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) carry out indispensable roles in NK cell development and function through engaging with class I human leukocyte antigens (HLA-I) as their ligands. Besides divergent KIR and HLA loci, KIR/HLA-I combinations have a significant effect on NK cell response. In this case–control study, we aimed to verify the association of KIR/HLA-I combinations with susceptibility to AML in the Southwestern Iranian population. KIR and HLA genotyping was performed with PCR-SSP by some novel primers for 181 patients with AML and 181 healthy controls. According to our results, the frequencies of KIR3DS1 (p = 0.0001, OR = 2.32, 95% CI 1.51–3.58), KIR2DS4fl (p = 0.02, OR = 1.53, 95% CI 1.05–2.21), CxT4 genotypes (p = 0.03, OR = 2.0, 95% CI 1.05–3.82), and T4 gene cluster (p = 0.01, OR = 1.99, 95% CI 1.17–3.41) were significantly higher in patients than controls, while C1/C2 genotype (p = 0.00002, OR = 0.39, 95% CI 0.25–0.61), HLA-A Bw4 (p = 0.02, OR = 0.6, 95% CI 0.38–0.94), and HLA-A*11 (p = 0.03, OR = 0.57, 95% CI 0.34–0.95) alleles were more frequent in controls. In addition, inhibitory (i)KIR/HLA-I combinations analysis revealed higher frequencies of KIR2DL1(+)/HLA-C2(+), KIR2DL2/3(+)/HLA-C1(+), KIR3DL1(+)/HLA-A Bw4(+), and KIR3DL2(+)/HLA-A*03/11(+) in the control group (p = 0.002, OR = 0.49, 95% CI 0.3–0.78; p = 0.04, OR = 0.62, 95% CI 0.39–0.99; p = 0.04, OR = 0.63, 95% CI 0.4–0.99; and p = 0.03, OR = 0.62, 95% CI 0.4–0.95, respectively). Overall, the number of iKIR/HLA-I combinations was more in the control group. Moreover, KIR3DS1(+)/HLA-B Bw4Ile80(+) and the sum of HLA-B Bw4/A Bw4 combined with KIR3DS1 as activating KIR/HLA-I combinations were more frequent among patients than controls (p = 0.01, OR = 1.99, 95% CI 1.14–3.49 and p = 0.005, OR = 1.97, 95% CI 1.22–3.19, respectively). In conclusion, our results postulate that inhibitory combinations play a protective role against AML by developing potent NK cells during education. It is noteworthy that KIR/HLA-I combination studies can be applicable in donor selection for allogeneic NK cell therapy in hematological malignancies. © 2023, The Author(s).