Background: Allopurinol, a common medication for gout treatment, can cause rare but life-threatening severe cutaneous adverse reactions. A strong pharmacogenetic association of human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-B*58:01 with allopurinol-induced drug hypersensitivity has been reported, especially in the Han Chinese population.
Objectives: To develop a rapid and simple loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay of HLA-B*58:01 and evaluate its feasibility in predicting allopurinol-induced drug hypersensitivity.
Methods: Two sets of LAMP primers targeting exons 2 and 3 of HLA-B*58:01 were designed. DNA extracted from 20 clinical blood samples of patients with gout was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the two LAMP primer sets for the detection of HLA-B*58:01.
Results: The results were compared with routine clinical genotyping methods. All extracted DNA samples tested with the HLA-B*58:01 LAMP assay showed agreement with the routine genotyping results. No amplifications were observed when unextracted blood samples were tested.
Conclusions: The HLA-B*58:01 LAMP assay was confirmed to be simple, rapid and specific for the detection of HLA-B*58:01, and therefore of potential value in the diagnosis of allopurinol-induced hypersensitivity.
© 2012 The Authors. BJD © 2012 British Association of Dermatologists.