Research for Clarification of Pathology and Prevention of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome

SJS and TEN are serious diseases that are rare but may accidentally develop in everyone. We are doing research on the likelihood of onset of SJS/TEN with eye complications at the Department of Ophthalmology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine.

People have various constitutions. Some are prone to gain weight while others are not. Some easily catch cold while others do not. Some are likely to run a fever while others are not. Different persons have different constitutions. It has been revealed recently that these constitutions depend on the individual differences existing in the genome, a blueprint of a life. There are hundreds of individual differences in the genome, and the differences are called gene polymorphisms. The gene polymorphisms responsible for constitutions result from individual differences in the genome and thus are different from genetic disorders inherited from parents to children.

According to the stories about the onset obtained through detailed interviews with the patients treated at the Department of Ophthalmology of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, approximately 80% of the patients first had signs and symptoms of common cold and experienced SJS/TEN after taking or being injected with a cold medicine. However, not all people experience SJS or TEN after taking a cold medicine or an antiepileptic. Only a few people experience SJS/TEN (Figure 1).

Though only a few things have been revealed, the likeliness of onset of SJS/TEN can currently be predicted in each individual on the basis of the discovery of many gene polymorphisms related to the constitutions prone to SJS/TEN, which will lead to prevention of onset and diagnoses in an early phase (Figure 2).

We are doing research on the basis of the idea that even patients already with the disease could know “which drugs to be careful of” if they understand the relationship between drugs and their constitutions.