ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2012
Human-specific evolution of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor recognition of major histocompatibility complex class I molecules.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 107 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
107 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 199 citations in OpenAlex.
- CD56-negative NK cells: Frequency in peripheral blood, expansion during HIV-1 infection, functional capacity, and KIR expression.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Pooled it
- Identification of elements determiningiScience · 2026Article
- Immunology of Normal Pregnancy and Preeclampsia and the Role of Placental Non-Classical HLA and Decidual NK Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Global patterns of KIR genotype diversity reflect human migration and regional differences.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Sensitization in Transplantation Assessment of Risk 2025 innate working group: The potential role of innate allorecognition in kidney allograft damage.American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons · 2025Review
- Chromosome-level genome assembly reveals adaptive evolution of the invasive Amazon sailfin catfish (Pterygoplichthys pardalis).Communications biology · 2025Article
- The Role of Killer Ig-like Receptors in Diseases from A to Z.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Viral manipulation of the HLA class I antigen processing and presentation pathway.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Peptide-specific natural killer cell receptors.Oxford open immunology · 2025Review
- Harnessing natural killer cells for refractory/relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma: biological roles, clinical trials, and future prospective.Biomarker research · 2024Review
- Natural killer cells in cancer immunotherapy.MedComm · 2024Review
- Immunologic aspects of preeclampsia.AJOG global reports · 2024Review
- HLA and KIR genetic association and NK cells in anti-NMDAR encephalitis.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Article
- Allelic variation of KIR and HLA tunes the cytolytic payload and determines functional hierarchy of NK cell repertoires.Blood advances · 2023Article
- Natural Killer Cells, as the Rising Point in Tissues, Are Forgotten in the Kidney.Biomolecules · 2023Review
- Killer instincts: natural killer cells as multifactorial cancer immunotherapy.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- TheFrontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Review
- Combined flow cytometry natural killer immunophenotyping and KIR/HLA-C genotyping reveal remarkable differences in acute myeloid leukemia patients, but suggest an overall impairment of the natural killer response.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Article
47 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
In placental mammals, natural killer (NK) cells are a population of lymphocytes that make unique contributions to immune defence and reproduction, functions essential for survival of individuals, populations and species. Modulating these functions are conserved and variable NK-cell receptors that recognize epitopes of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. In humans, for example, recognition of human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-E by the CD94:NKG2A receptor is conserved, whereas recognition of HLA-A, B and C by the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) is diversified. Competing demands of the immune and reproductive systems, and of T-cell and NK-cell immunity-combined with the segregation on different chromosomes of variable NK-cell receptors and their MHC class I ligands-drive an unusually rapid evolution that has resulted in unprecedented levels of species specificity, as first appreciated from comparison of mice and humans. Counterparts to human KIR are present only in simian primates. Observed in these species is the coevolution of KIR and the four MHC class I epitopes to which human KIR recognition is restricted. Unique to hominids is the emergence of the MHC-C locus as a supplier of specialized and superior ligands for KIR. This evolutionary trend is most highly elaborated in the chimpanzee. Unique to the human KIR locus are two groups of KIR haplotypes that are present in all human populations and subject to balancing selection. Group A KIR haplotypes resemble chimpanzee KIR haplotypes and are enriched for genes encoding KIR that bind HLA class I, whereas group B KIR haplotypes are enriched for genes encoding receptors with diminished capacity to bind HLA class I. Correlating with their balance in human populations, B haplotypes favour reproductive success, whereas A haplotypes favour successful immune defence. Evolution of the B KIR haplotypes is thus unique to the human species.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.