THE ROLE OF HLA AND KIR POLYMORPHISMS IN THE CLINICAL OUTCOME OF COVID-19 INFECTED PATIENTS

It is known that specific HLA alleles can be associated with severe immunological drug reaction, e.g. B*57:01 in HIV patients. Furthermore, NK cells play an important role in the innate immune response against viruses and tumors, and in the regulation of the subsequent adaptive immune response. Therefore, we hypothesize that specific HLA and KIR genes could be associated with the development of hypersensitive immunological reactions in COVID-infected patients and hence severe lung diseases. If so, this knowledge would allow us to identify the high risk patients with these alleles very early in the disease, and beneficially impact the clinical outcome of these patients. Such information is critical for the strategic clinical management, to unravel the immunological process during the COVID infection, and for evaluation of the efficacy of medication in the different individuals. The HLA laboratory of UZB has many years of experience in typing HLA and KIR genes. We use the most recent molecular techniques (Next Generation Sequencing) to type HLA genes at high resolution. Moreover, we studied the influence of KIR and HLA genes in HIV patients in cooperation with institute of tropical medicine, as published in peer reviewed articles (Blood. 2013; 121; J Immunol. 2006; 177)