title: High prevalence of specific KIR types in patients with HHV-8 positive cutaneous vascular lesions: a possible predisposing factor?
abstract: Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) has been hypothesized to be a potential cofactor for the development of diverse cutaneous vascular proliferative lesions, including eruptive cherry angiomas. Recent reports evidenced the influence of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) gene diversity in defining the susceptibility to symptomatic herpesvirus infections. In this study, skin samples from vascular lesions and healthy controls were characterized simultaneously for the presence of HHV8 and for the KIR genotype, focusing upon the presence of the KIR2DL2/DS2 and KIR2DL3 genes, which have been associated to herpesvirus susceptibility. The results showed that about 64 % of the vascular lesions resulted positive for the presence of HHV8, whereas no control healthy skin samples harbored HHV8 DNA. HHV8-positive patients had a significantly increased frequency of KIR2DL2/DS2 homozigosity and a concomitant decrease of the homozygous KIR2DL3 genotype, compared to healthy controls or HHV8-negative patients. Notably, the simultaneous presence of KIR2DL2/DS2 homozygosity and HHV8 infection resulted in a significantly increased risk to develop cutaneous lesions (OR 5.7) compared to the individual factors alone, suggesting that specific KIR genotypes might predispose to HHV8 symptomatic infection, allowing the virus to exert its angioproliferative activity at skin level.
authors.affiliation: Section of Dermatology and Infectious Diseases, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borghi
authors.affiliation: Section of Microbiology and Medical Genetics, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: D'Accolti
authors.affiliation: Section of Microbiology and Medical Genetics, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rizzo
authors.affiliation: Section of Dermatology and Infectious Diseases, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: Annarosa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Virgili
authors.affiliation: Section of Microbiology and Medical Genetics, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Di Luca
authors.affiliation: Section of Dermatology and Infectious Diseases, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Corazza
authors.affiliation: Section of Microbiology and Medical Genetics, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy. csb@unife.it.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Caselli
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D001706:Biopsy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015984:Causality; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D018324:Hemangioma, Capillary / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000821:virology*; D019288:Herpesvirus 8, Human / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054340:Receptors, KIR / Q000235:genetics*; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D054340:Receptors, KIR
keywords: Cherry angioma; HHV8; Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR); Skin angioproliferative lesions