J Allergy Clin Immunol 2020 Aug 10. Epub 2020 Aug 10.
Department of Dermatology, Drug Hypersensitivity Clinical and Research Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taipei, and Keelung, Taiwan; Cancer Vaccine and Immune Cell Therapy Core Laboratory, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan; Chang Gung Immunology Consortium, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Linkou, Taiwan; Department of Dermatology, Xiamen Chang Gung Hospital, Xiamen, China; College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Whole-Genome Research Core Laboratory of Human Diseases, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Keelung, Taiwan; Immune-Oncology Center of Excellence, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Genomic Medicine Core Laboratory, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan; Department of Dermatology, Beijing Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital, School of Clinical Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing; School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai. Electronic address:
Background: Co-trimoxazole, a sulfonamide antibiotic, is used to treat a variety of infections worldwide, and it remains a common first-line medicine for prophylaxis against Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia. However, it can cause severe cutaneous adverse reaction (SCAR), including Stevens-Johnson syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis, and drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms. The pathomechanism of co-trimoxazole-induced SCAR remains unclear.
Objective: We aimed to investigate the genetic predisposition of co-trimoxazole-induced SCAR.
Methods: We conducted a multicountry case-control association study that included 151 patients with of co-trimoxazole-induced SCAR and 4631 population controls from Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia, as well as 138 tolerant controls from Taiwan. Whole-genome sequencing was performed for the patients and population controls from Taiwan; it further validated the results from Thailand and Malaysia.
Results: The whole-genome sequencing study (43 case patients vs 507 controls) discovered that the single-nucleotide polymorphism rs41554616, which is located between the HLA-B and MICA loci, had the strongest association with co-trimoxazole-induced SCAR (P = 8.2 × 10; odds ratio [OR] = 7.7). There were weak associations of variants in co-trimoxazole-related metabolizing enzymes (CYP2D6, GSTP1, GCLC, N-acetyltransferase [NAT2], and CYP2C8). A replication study using HLA genotyping revealed that HLA-B∗13:01 was strongly associated with co-trimoxazole-induced SCAR (the combined sample comprised 91 case patients vs 2545 controls [P = 7.2 × 10; OR = 8.7]). A strong HLA association was also observed in the case patients from Thailand (P = 3.2 × 10; OR = 3.6) and Malaysia (P = .002; OR = 12.8), respectively. A meta-analysis and phenotype stratification study further indicated a strong association between HLA-B∗13:01 and co-trimoxazole-induced drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (P = 4.2 × 10; OR = 40.1).
Conclusion: This study identified HLA-B∗13:01 as an important genetic factor associated with co-trimoxazole-induced SCAR in Asians.