Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Medical genetics

A marker for Stevens–Johnson syndrome

Abstract

Stevens–Johnson syndrome and the related disease toxic epidermal necrolysis are life-threatening reactions of the skin to particular types of medication1,2,3. Here we show that there is a strong association in Han Chinese between a genetic marker, the human leukocyte antigen HLA–B*1502, and Stevens–Johnson syndrome induced by carbamazepine, a drug commonly prescribed for the treatment of seizures. It should be possible to exploit this association in a highly reliable test to predict severe adverse reaction, as well as for investigation of the pathogenesis of Stevens–Johnson syndrome.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Roujeau, J.-C. J. Invest. Dermatol. 102 (suppl.), 28–30 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Roujeau, J.-C. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 333, 1600–1607 (1995).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Rzany, B. et al. Lancet 353, 2190–2194 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Svensson, C. K., Cowen, E. W. & Gaspari, A. A. Pharmacol. Rev. 53, 357–379 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Goldstein, D. B., Tate, S. K. & Sisodiya, S. M. Nature Rev. Genet. 4, 937–947 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Roujeau, J. -C. et al. Tissue Antigens 28, 251–254 (1986).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Erlich, H. A., Opelz, G. & Hansen, J. Immunity 14, 347–356 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Khoo, A. K. M. & Foo, C. L. Burns 22, 275–278 (1996).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Kamaliah, M. D., Zainal, D., Mokhtar, N. & Nazmi, N. Int. J. Dermatol. 37, 520–523 (1998).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Geer, L., Terasaki, P. I. & Gjertson, D. W. in HLA 1998 (eds Gjertson, D. W. & Terasaki, P. I.) 327–363 (Am. Soc. Histocompat. Immunogenet., Kansas, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Schlosstein, L., Terasaki, P. I., Bluestone, R. & Pearson, C. M. N. Engl. J. Med. 288, 704–706 (1973).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuan-Tsong Chen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table S1 and S2

Supplementary Table S1: Clinical data of patients with carbamazepine-induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome; Supplementary Table S2: Demographic variables, dosage and duration of carbamazepine (CBZ) exposure in CBZ-induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and CBZ tolerant patients as well as normal subjects. (DOC 34 kb)

Supplementary Methods

Presents the procedure for patients and control subjects recruitment, criteria for phenotype definition, PCR primers sequences for HLA-B allele typing, and statistical analysis. (DOC 24 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Chung, WH., Hung, SI., Hong, HS. et al. A marker for Stevens–Johnson syndrome. Nature 428, 486 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/428486a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/428486a

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing