Association of the HLA-B alleles with carbamazepine-induced Stevens–Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis in the Javanese and Sundanese population of Indonesia: the important role of the HLA-B75 serotype

Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a common cause of life-threatening cutaneous adverse drug reactions such as Stevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). Previous studies have reported a strong association between the HLA genotype and CBZ-induced SJS/TEN. We investigated the association between the HLA genotype and CBZ-induced SJS/TEN in Javanese and Sundanese patients in Indonesia. Nine unrelated patients with CBZ-induced SJS/TEN and 236 healthy Javanese and Sundanese controls were genotyped for HLA-B and their allele frequencies were compared. The HLA-B*15:02 allele was found in 66.7% of the patients with CBZ-induced SJS/TEN, but only in 29.4% of tolerant control (p = 0.029; odds ratio [OR]: 6.5; 95% CI: 1.2–33.57) and 22.9% of healthy controls (p = 0.0021; OR: 6.78; 95% CI: 1.96–23.38). These findings support the involvement of HLA-B*15:02 in CBZ-induced SJS/TEN reported in other Asian populations. Interestingly, we also observed the presence of the HLA-B*15:21 allele. HLA-B*15:02 and HLA-B*15:21 are members of the HLA-B75 serotype, for which a greater frequency was observed in CBZ-induced SJS/TEN (vs tolerant control [p = 0.0078; OR: 12; 95% CI: 1.90–75.72] and vs normal control [p = 0.0018; OR: 8.56; 95% CI: 1.83–40]). Our findings suggest that screening for the HLA-B75 serotype can predict the risk of CBZ-induced SJS/TEN more accurately than screening for a specific allele.