USEFUL APPLICATIONS: A dermatologist said that companies could use the team’s findings to avoid developing medicines with severe side effects

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 31, 2019
By: Jake Chung  /  Staff writer, with CNA

An international team lead by Chang Gung Memorial Hospital doctors has linked T-cell receptors to drug hypersensitivity, opening the door for possible clinical applications and treatments.

Their paper appeared in this month’s issue of Nature Communications.

According to the paper, T-cell-mediated delayed-type drug hypersensitivity can cause life-threatening severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCAR), including Stevens-Johnson syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis and a drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms.

Half of all people in Taiwan with drug hypersensitivity suffer from Stevens-Johnson syndrome or toxic epidermal necrolysis, doctors say.

T lymphocytes were thought to play an important role in the origin and development of SCAR, and tests confirmed the presence of drug-specific T cells in patients with SCAR, the paper said.
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