HLA-B*51:01 is strongly associated with clindamycin-related cutaneous adverse drug reactions.

Clindamycin causes cutaneous adverse drug reactions (cADRs), sometimes with the mechanisms of pathogenicity or risk factors unknown. This study aims to assess whether HLA alleles are associated with clindamycin-related cADRs in the Han Chinese population. We performed an association study of 12 subjects with clindamycin-related cADRs, 279 controls and 26 clindamycin-tolerant subjects. Subjects who received clindamycin through intravenous drip were analyzed separately. Unbiased, in silico docking was conducted. We found 6 out of 12 clindamycin-induced cADR patients carried HLA-B*51:01, and all of them received clindamycin via intravenous drip (6/9). The carrier frequency of HLA-B*51:01 is significantly higher compared with the control group (P=0.0006; OR=9.731, 95% CI: 2.927-32.353) and the clindamycin-tolerant group (OR=24.000, 95% CI: 3.247-177.405). In silico docking showed clindamycin is potentially more stable inside HLA-B*51:01 protein. Our results suggested, for the first time, that HLA-B*51:01 is a risk allele for clindamycin-related cADRs in Han Chinese, especially when clindamycin is administered via intravenous drip.