April 10, 2017 Drug responses are known to vary based on the genetic profiles of patients. This is why personalized medicine is highly desirable to prevent adverse effects. Credit: lightwise / 123rf

Drug-induced hypersensitivity reactions (DIHRs) are serious and life threatening. A common example is the use of the antiepileptic drug carbamazepine, but the mechanisms that trigger it are unclear. Current scientific consensus holds that people who have a specific variation of the 'human leukocyte antigen B' (HLA-B) gene, which provides the code for making a protein that plays a critical role in the immune system, are more at risk of DIHR. However, the mechanism linking this gene to DIHR is currently unknown. As this specific variation, called HLA-B*15:02, is fairly common in people of South-East Asian descent, this is a serious problem for clinicians in the region.

Researchers at Universiti Teknologi MARA Selangor in Malaysia used computer modelling to mimic and analyse how the protein encoded by HLA-B*15:02 interacts with a range of antiepileptic medications. The researchers used various software to mimic how drugs interact with a specific region of the HLA protein that is crucial for its normal functionality. Since the HLA complex acts like a sort of identity card in our cells, anything interacting with it other than our own immune cells can cause problems.

Carbamazepine and another eight out of 26 antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) that were tested were found to bind strongly to the HLA complex in the simulation model. The team believes this strong binding is behind DIHRs in patients who carry the variant gene.

The remaining AEDs that did not show strong binding interactions with the HLA-B*15:02 complex, including clonazepam, nitrazepam and stiripentol, could be safer options for patients that have already developed adverse reactions to other antiepileptic drugs.

Testing for HLA-B*15:02, which can be done in as few as four hours, should be incorporated into clinical practice as soon as possible, recommends the study's lead researcher Mohd Zaki Salleh.

Explore further: Some psychotic disorders may be induced by drugs designed to combat effects of epilepsy

Rice University researchers are starting to understand how protein fragments influence the fiber aggregation suspected as a cause of Huntington's disease.

Researchers from King's College London have discovered a specific class of inhibitory neurons in the cerebral cortex which plays a key role in how the brain encodes spatial information. The findings are published in the journal ...

Huntington's disease is an inherited brain disorder that is uniformly fatal, but researchers at Johns Hopkins believe they have made a big discovery about how the disease progresses that could lead to a way to stop it.

Scientists have known that a lack of sleep can interfere with the ability to learn and make memories. Now, a group of University of Michigan researchers have found how sleep deprivation affects memory-making in the brain.

Neurons derived from two different types of precursor cells that later develop into neurons in the medial amygdala - one of the interconnected structures in the brain involved in emotion, motivation and memory - help to program ...

A surgical technique that sends electrical impulses to a specific area of the brain reduces the "tics," or involuntary movements and vocal outbursts, experienced by young adults with severe cases of Tourette syndrome, according ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

See the article here:
The gene that turns epilepsy treatment deadly - Medical Xpress