An epidemiologic study to determine the prevalence of the HLA-B*5701 allele among HIV-positive patients in Europe

Jianmin Wang; C Orkin; Jianmin Wang; C Bergin; JM Molina; A Lazzarin; M Cavassini; S Esser; JLG Sirvent; H Pearce

An epidemiologic study to determine the prevalence of the HLA-B*5701 allele among HIV-positive patients in Europe

Orkin, C., Wang, J., Bergin, C., Molina, JM., Lazzarin, A., Cavassini, M., Esser, S., Sirvent, JLG., & Pearce, H. (2010). An epidemiologic study to determine the prevalence of the HLA-B*5701 allele among HIV-positive patients in Europe. Pharmacogenetics and Genomics, 20(5), 307-314.

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Abstract

Objectives HLA-B*5701 is a major histocompatibility complex class I allele associated with an immunologically-mediated hypersensitivity reaction to abacavir. The objectives of this study were to evaluate HLA-B*5701 prevalence among European, HIV-1-infected patients and to compare the local and central laboratory screening results.
Methods Data were combined from six multicentre, prospective studies involving 10 European countries in which HIV-1-infected patients (irrespective of treatment experience or previous HLA-B*5701 screening), >= 18 years of age, were evaluated for HLA-B*5701 carriage, determined by the central and local laboratory methods.

Results A total of 9720 patients from 272 centres were included in the analysis. The overall estimate of HLA-B*5701 prevalence in Europe was 4.98%, with country-specific estimates ranging from 1.53 to 7.75%. HLA-B*5701 prevalence was highest in the self-reported white population (6.49%) and lowest in the black population (0.39%). Local laboratory results had a high specificity (99.9%) and sensitivity (99.2%) when compared with the central laboratory results.

Conclusion This study supports data from previous studies regarding the prevalence of HLA-B*5701 in the HIV population and the variation of HLA-B*5701 prevalence between different racial groups. The high specificity and sensitivity of local laboratory results, suggests that clinicians can be confident in using local laboratories for pretreatment HLA-B*5701 screening. However, it is essential that local laboratories participate in HLA-B*5701-specific quality assurance programs to maintain 100% sensitivity. In HIV-infected patients, pretreatment HLA-B*5701 screening may allow more informed decisions regarding abacavir use and has the potential to significantly reduce the frequency of abacavir-related hypersensitivity reactions and costs associated with managing these reactions. Pharmacogenetics and Genomics 20: 307-314 (c) 2010 Wolters Kluwer Health vertical bar Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.