Lamotrigine (LTG) is a commonly used antiepileptic drug. However, the use of LTG is limited because of its cutaneous adverse drug reactions (cADRs) ranging from mild maculopapular eruption (MPE) to severe Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). A strong association between HLA-B*1502 and carbamazepine-induced SJS/TEN has been identified in Chinese and Thai. Although three of seven cases with HLA-B*1502 have been reported in LTG-induced SJS/TEN so far, the relationship between HLA-B*1502 and LTG-induced SJS/TEN needs further investigation. It is also unclear whether there is a specific genetic marker associated with LTG-induced MPE in Chinese. In this study, we genotyped 43 Han Chinese patients treated with LTG (14 cases with LTG-induced cADRs and 29 LTG-tolerant controls), using PCR-SSP for HLA-B*1502 testing and low-resolution genotyping, as well as sequencing for four-digit genotyping. The two cases with SJS were negative for HLA-B*1502, with B1301/1301 and 4601/5610, respectively. Combining the data with previous studies, there was no significant difference in the frequency of subjects with HLA-B*1502 between the LTG-induced SJS/TEN group and the LTG-tolerant group (p = 0.08, OR 4.23, 95% CI 0.94-18.97). In the MPE group, only one was positive for HLA-B*1502. There was no significant difference in the frequency of a specific HLA-B allele between the MPE group and the LTG-tolerant group either. In this study, no significant association between HLA-B*1502 and LTG-induced SJS or MPE was found. Given the small sample size and only HLA-B locus genotyping, further large-scale studies are required to explore genetic associations with LTG-induced cADRs.
© 2011 The Authors. Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology © 2011 Nordic Pharmacological Society.