An improved method with high specificity for KIR2DL1 functional allele typing

Abstract

As new killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) alleles are discovered, a challenge in KIR typing is maintaining sensitivity and specificity. A single nucleotide polymorphism assay can be used to type functional KIR2DL1 alleles. We improved recently on the earlier method by using a higher-specificity assay. The major modifications include the development of sequence-specific primers to selectively amplify the transmembrane domain of all known KIR2DL1 alleles via polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP), and using the PCR products as the template for a revised KIR2DL1 functional allele-typing assay. This modified method allows high-throughput typing with high specificity.