DEC‧2015
NEWS
Mutual Cooperation Between National Taiwan University and
Academia Sinica Discovers Genes That Induce the Side Effect of
Agranulocytosis When Taking Anti-Thyroid Drugs
After extensive research, the research team led by Prof. Tien-Chun Chang, and
composed of members from National Taiwan University Hospital (the Department of
Internal Medicine and the Department of Medical Genetics), National Taiwan University
College of Medicine (Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, Graduate Institute of Medical
Genomics Proteomics), and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of Academia Sinica, have
discovered two genes, HLA-B*38:02 and HLA-DRB1*08:03, which induce the side effect of
agranulocytosis after anti-thyroid drugs have been taken. This result was published in the
journal Nature Communications on July 7, 2015.
The research team has applied for patent protection for the examination technique.
After the technology transfer is completed, an examination could be performed on patients
beforehand, and if the above two genes are found, the clinical follow-up strategy for
anti-thyroid drugs might need to be changed in order to prevent the severe drug side effect
of agranulocytosis.
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Source：Public Affairs Office
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Excerpted from：IMSC
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Date：July, 2015
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Excerpted on：December, 2015