{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,23]],"date-time":"2026-08-23T18:25:29Z","timestamp":1787509529268,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"24","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,7]],"date-time":"2022-12-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1670371200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Research Council of Palermo"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Natural killer (NK) cells play a role in defence against viral infections by killing infected cells or by producing cytokines and interacting with adaptive immune cells. Killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) regulate the activation of NK cells through their interaction with human leucocyte antigens (HLA). Ninety-six Sicilian patients positive to Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV) and ninety-two Sicilian patients positive to SARS-CoV-2 were genotyped for KIRs and their HLA ligands. We also included fifty-six Sicilian patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) already recruited in our previous study. The aim of this study was to compare the distribution of KIR\u2013HLA genes\/groups of these three different infected populations with healthy Sicilian donors from the literature. We showed that the inhibitory KIR3DL1 gene and the KIR3DL1\/HLA-B Bw4 pairing were more prevalent in individual CHB. At the same time, the frequency of HLA-C2 was increased in CHB compared to other groups. In contrast, the HLA-C1 ligand seems to have no contribution to CHB progression whereas it was significantly higher in COVID-19 and HIV-positive than healthy controls. These results suggest that specific KIR\u2013HLA combinations can predict the outcome\/susceptibility of these viral infections and allows to plan successful customized therapeutic strategies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms232415466","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,7]],"date-time":"2022-12-07T03:27:57Z","timestamp":1670383677000},"page":"15466","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Distribution of KIR Genes and Their HLA Ligands in Different Viral Infectious Diseases: Frequency Study in Sicilian Population"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"given":"Mattia Emanuela","family":"Ligotti","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Immunopathology and Immunosenescence, Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, 90134 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2593-3221","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna","family":"Aiello","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Immunopathology and Immunosenescence, Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, 90134 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3565-9529","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giulia","family":"Accardi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Immunopathology and Immunosenescence, Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, 90134 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6075-0845","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna","family":"Calabr\u00f2","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Immunopathology and Immunosenescence, Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, 90134 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6120-9041","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marcello","family":"Ciaccio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Clinical Biochemistry and Clinical Molecular Medicine, Department of Biomedicine, Neuroscience and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Claudia","family":"Colomba","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Promotion, Maternal and Infant Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9728-3806","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Danilo","family":"Di Bona","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70124 Bari, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bruna","family":"Lo Sasso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Clinical Biochemistry and Clinical Molecular Medicine, Department of Biomedicine, Neuroscience and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4971-240X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fanny","family":"Pojero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Immunopathology and Immunosenescence, Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, 90134 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6440-7318","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Antonino","family":"Tuttolomondo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Promotion, Maternal and Infant Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8004-2363","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Calogero","family":"Caruso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Immunopathology and Immunosenescence, Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, 90134 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9966-934X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giuseppina","family":"Candore","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Immunopathology and Immunosenescence, Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, 90134 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Giovanni","family":"Duro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation, National Research Council of Italy, 90146 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1365-2567.2009.03208.x","article-title":"The extensive polymorphism of KIR genes","volume":"129","author":"Middleton","year":"2010","journal-title":"Immunology"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"239","DOI":"10.4049\/jimmunol.169.1.239","article-title":"Genetic control of human NK cell repertoire","volume":"169","author":"Shilling","year":"2002","journal-title":"J. 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