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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