← Drugs

Antiretroviral

Abacavir

The example everyone reaches for when they want to show that pharmacogenomics changed practice — and it did. Test before the first dose, do not prescribe if positive, and a reaction people used to fear became rare.

What this drug connects to

Abacavir Condition: Abacavir Hypersensitivity (HLA-B*57:01) Abacavir Hypersensitivity (HLA-B*57:01) Condition Variant: rs114985235 · HLA-B rs114985235 · HLA-B Variant Variant: rs2523590 · HLA-B rs2523590 · HLA-B Variant Variant: rs2395029 · HLA-B rs2395029 · HLA-B Variant Abacavir Abacavir Antiretrovir…

The genes involved

HLA-B

Abacavir Hypersensitivity (HLA-B*57:01) →

HLA-B*57:01 carriage is strongly associated with abacavir hypersensitivity, a reaction that can be fatal on re-exposure. CPIC issued guidance in 2012 and confirmed in its 2014 update that the recommendation was unchanged: screen before the first dose and do not prescribe abacavir to a carrier. This is a pre-prescription safety test performed by clinical HLA typing, and it is the example most often given of pharmacogenomics changing practice — the reaction became uncommon where screening was adopted.

CPIC Guidelines for HLA-B Genotype and Abacavir Dosing: 2014 update (Clin Pharmacol Ther 2014, PMID 24561393).

Variants MyGeneLog reports for these genes

These are the positions in your own file that carry the genes above. Not every gene in a guideline is one we report — where that is the case the gene appears above without a variant here, and the note says so.

Crohn's disease

HLA-B · rs114985235

Read more →

HIV-1 control

HLA-B · rs2523590

Read more →

HIV-1 control

HLA-B · rs2395029

Read more →
This page is educational and contains no dosing information. Where a clinical guideline covers one of these gene-drug pairs it is written for prescribers and works through validated algorithms alongside clinical monitoring. Nothing here is a reason to start, stop, or change a medication — that conversation belongs with the clinician or pharmacist managing your treatment.