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Updated: May 30, 2026
qKAT: Quantitative Semi-automated Typing of Killer-cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptor Genes
Published on: March 6, 2019
Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor genotyping and HLA killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor-ligand
H A Hong1, A S Loubser, D de Assis Rosa
1AIDS Virus Research Unit, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Services, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Abstract:
The effector function of natural killer (NK) cells is modulated by surface expression of a range of killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) that interact with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I ligands. We describe the use of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays that allow easy and quick detection of 16 KIR genes and the presence/absence of KIR-ligands based on allelic discrimination at codon 80 in the HLA-A/B Bw4 and HLA-C C1/C2 genes. These methods overcome the tedious and expensive nature of conventional KIR genotyping and HLA class I typing using sequence-specific primer (SSP) PCR, sequence-specific oligonucleotide (SSO) hybridization or sequence-based typing (SBT). Using these two cost-effective assays, we measured the frequencies of KIRs, KIR-ligands and KIR/KIR-ligand pairs in a cohort of Black women recruited in South Africa.
