Genome-wide DNA methylation assay of allopurinol-induced SCAR

To further explore the mechanisms of allopurinol-induced SCAR, we conducted a genome- wide DNA methylation analysis of the allopurinol-induced SCAR patients and tolerant controls. The study individuals were divided into four groups as SCAR patients with HLA-B*58:01, tolerant controls with HLA-B*58:01, SCAR patients without HLA-B*58:01, and tolerant controls without HLA-B*58:01. After bioinformatics analysis of the methylation data, we found that aberrant DNA methylation status of HLA molecules, including HLA-B, cell-cell adhesion molecules and anti- apoptotic molecules contribute to the pathogenesis of allopurinol-induced SCAR. We also recovered some promising epigenetic markers with high sensitivity and specificity for allopurinol-induced SCAR. Bisulphite converted DNA from the 62 samples were applied to the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip (850K)