Grant: Operating Grant

Many drugs can cause unexpected or idiosyncratic serious side effects or adverse reactions. In many cases these adverse reactions are mediated by the immune system, i.e. they are "allergic" in nature. These adverse effects can lead to liver failure or loss of blood cells required to deal with infections, either of which can be fatal. Although most patients will not such adverse reactions when given a drug, it now appears that many, if not most, patients and animals do have a silent immune response that does not cause serious harm. We are studying these immune responses to better understand what goes wrong in patients who have serious idiosyncratic adverse reactions. With this better understanding we hope to be able to prevent or treat such serious adverse reactions.