Likanonsakul S, Rattanatham T, Feangvad S, Uttayamakul S, Prasithsirikul W, Tunthanathip P, Nakayama EE, Shioda T HLA-Cw*04 allele associated with nevirapine-induced rash in HIV-infected Thai patients. [JOURNAL ARTICLE] AIDS Res Ther 2009 Oct 21; 6(1):22.
ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: A high incidence of rash has been reported in HIV-1 patients who received the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine. In addition, several studies have suggested that polymorphisms of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes have been suggested to play important roles in nevirapine-induced rash. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of different HLA-C alleles on rash associated with nevirapine in patients who started highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) containing nevirapine in Thailand. RESULTS: A case-control study was carried out involving HIV-1 patients under treatment at Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute, Nonthaburi, Thailand between March 2007 and March 2008. The study included all HIV/AIDS patients being treated with nevirapine-containing regimens. The study population comprised 287 HIV/AIDS patients of whom 248 were nevirapine-tolerant and 39 developed rash after nevirapine treatment. From the nevirapine-tolerant patients, 60 were selected as the control group on the basis of age, sex, and therapy history matched for nevirapine-induced rash cases. We observed significantly more HLA-Cw*04 alleles in nevirapine-induced rash cases than in nevirapine-tolerant group, with frequencies of 20.51% and 7.50%, respectively (P=0.009). There were no significant differences between the rash and tolerant groups for other HLA-C alleles except for HLA-Cw*03 (P=0.015). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that HLA-Cw*04 is associated with rash in nevirapine treated Thais. Future screening of patients' HLA may reduce the number of nevirapine-induced rash cases, and patients with alleles associated with nevirapine-induced rash should be started on anti-retroviral therapy without nevirapine.
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