Penicillin allergy is a potentially life-threatening condition that is common among patients. However, the genetic associations with
penicillin allergy are not yet recognized for prevention or diagnosis, particularly in East Asian populations. We conducted a retrospective case-control study using data from the Taiwan
Precision Medicine Initiative and analysing
DNA samples to identify eight major MHC Class I and Class II loci. We employed imputation methods for accurate HLA typing and enrolled 17,827 individuals who received
penicillin. Logistic regression analyses were utilized to explore associations between HLA genotypes, comorbidities and
allergy risk, while simultaneously conducting a subgroup analysis to explore the association between HLA genotypes, comorbidities and the severity of
allergic reactions. Our study assigned 496 cases to the
penicillin allergy group and 4960 controls to a matched group. The risk of
penicillin allergy was significantly higher with
HLA-DPB1*05:01 (OR = 1.36, p = .004) and
HLA-DQB1*05:01 (OR = 1.54, p = .03), with adjusted p-values of .032 and .24, respectively.
Urticaria was identified as a separate risk factor (OR = 1.73, p < .001). However, neither the HLA alleles nor the comorbidities had a significant relationship with the risk of severe
penicillin-induced
allergy.
HLA-DPB1*05:01 was found to be significantly associated with
penicillin allergy reactions among the Taiwanese population.