Evaluation of host genetics on outcome of tuberculosis infection due to differences in killer immunoglobulin-like receptor gene frequencies and haplotypes.

Background: Outcome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection is affected by virulence of the infecting strain of Mtb, host environment, co-morbidities, and the genetic composition of the host, specifically the presence or absence of genes involved in immune responses/regulation. It is hypothesized that specific killer immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) genes may be associated with Mtb infection and clinical outcome. This cross-sectional study examined the KIR gene frequencies, profiles, and haplotypes of individuals with active tuberculosis, latent tuberculosis infection, compared to TB and HIV negative healthy controls.

Killer immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) centromeric-AA haplotype is associated with ethnicity and tuberculosis disease in a Canadian First Nations cohort.

Killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) on natural killer (NK) cells interact with other immune cells to monitor the immune system and combat infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis (TB). The balance of activating and inhibiting KIR interactions helps determine the NK cell response. In order to examine the enrichment or depletion of KIRs as well as to explore the association between TB status and inhibitory/stimulatory KIR haplotypes, we performed KIR genotyping on samples from 93 Canadian First Nations (Dene, Cree, and Ojibwa) individuals from Manitoba with active, latent, or no TB infection, and 75 uninfected Caucasian controls.