Human leucocyte antigen alleles related to asparaginase allergy in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

Abstract

The aim of my project was to determine the association between allele variants coding for the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) and pegylated L-asparaginase (PEG-ASNase) induced allergy in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) treated according to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) 16-001 protocol. Patients aged 1-22 years with newly diagnosed ALL were genotyped. DNA was extracted from serum samples and the presence of the HLA-DRB1*07:01 allele was determined using PCR analysis. For patients harbouring this allele, an additional two-step PCR test was done to determine presence of HLA-DQB1*02:02. DRB1*07:01 carriers did not have a significantly higher risk of experiencing allergy compared to non-carriers (OR=1.1; p>0.05). Similarly, the DRB1*07:01/DQB1*02:02 haplotype did not increase allergy risk (OR=1.4; p>0.05). However, the association between allergies graded three and higher and the presence of DRB1*07:01/DQB1*02:02 did result in a greater OR and p-value closer to statistical significance (OR=2.9; p=0.15) In conclusion, this study was not able to demonstrate an increased risk of PEG-ASNase allergy in patients positive for HLA allele variants.