Researchers have published a new study
explaining how the HIV drug abacavir causes allergies in people with the
HLA-B*5701 gene allele.
Researchers
have published a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Science that explains how some drugs cause allergies.
The
study, led by Dr. Bjoern Peters from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and
Immunology in the United States, showed specifically how the HIV drug abacavir
interacts with the human gene HLA-B*5701 to cause an immune rejection.
HLA are
a group of genes that have evolved to help our immune system to identify when
our bodies are infected by foreign invaders such as viruses and bacteria.
Individuals
have different variations of HLA and many serious allergic reactions to drugs
have been recently found to be linked to a specific HLA type.
“HLA-linked
hypersensitivity is a really big problem that can produce symptoms ranging from
mild rashes with flu-like symptoms to life-threatening rashes of the magnitude
of a severe burn, organ failure and even death,” explained co-author Prof.
Elizabeth Phillips from Murdoch’s Institute for Immunology and Infectious
Diseases.
Phillips
hopes that the connection between HLA-B*5701 and abacavir hypersensitivity may
provide clinician scientists a roadmap towards safer drug design and
development.
The
article can be found at: Ostrov DA et al. (2012) Drug
hypersensitivity caused by alteration of the MHC-presented self-peptide
repertoire.
——
Source: Murdoch
University.
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