Abstract
Introduction: Anticonvulsant drugs are valuable treatments for seizures and epilepsy. Carbamazepine (CBZ) and lamotrigine (LTG) are antiepileptic and mood-stabilizing drugs used to treat these diseases. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between the side effects of CBZ and LTG and the HLA-B*1502 and HLA-A31:01 alleles in Iranian patients with a seizure disorder.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on patients diagnosed with convulsions who visited Imam Reza and Razi Educational-Therapeutic Center, affiliated with Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, between March 2018 and March 2022. The blood samples of patients were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction for the presence or absence of HLA-B*1502 and HLA-A31:01 alleles.
Findings: In the HLA genetic analysis, the frequency of HLA-A31:01 was found to be 3.1%, and all three carriers of the HLA-A31:01 allele were in the first group; however, the difference between the studied groups was not statistically significant (P=0.07). The prevalence of the HLA-B 1502 gene in low resolution was 5.2%, which included 2 (4.2%) patients in the first group and 3 (6.1%) patients in the second group (P=0.66). None of these patients carried the HLA-B 1502 genotype in the high-resolution analysis. In the subgroup analysis of CBZ recipients, the prevalence of HLA-A31:01 was found to be 4.5%, and all three HLA-A31:01 patients were in the first group; however, the difference between the examined groups was not statistically significant (P>0.05). In the LTG subgroup analysis, HLA-B15:02 did not indicate a significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05).
Conclusion: In the present study, which involved 97 patients, no correlation was found between the genetic markers HLA-B*1502 and HLA-A31:01 and skin reactions triggered by antiepileptic drugs.