Example of letter to Editor
……………………………………………………
…………………………………………………….
Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University
Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand
Tel / Fax 66-43-………………
Email: ……………………
Date
Prof. Prof. Michel Eichelbaum (Name of the Editor)
Pharmacogenetics and Genomics (Name of the Journal)
Subject : Manuscript submission
Dear Prof. Michel Eichelbaum
I would like to submit the manuscript entitled "Strong association between
HLA-B*5801 and allopurinol -induced Stevens- Johnson Syndrome and toxic
epidermal necrolysis in a Thai population". A strong association between allopurinolinduced SCAR and HLA-B*5801 has been reported in a Han Chinese population,
however only a moderate association was observed in European and Japanese
populations. The issue of ethnic difference in the association of HLA gene and severe
cautaneous reactions have been raised for several drugs (i.e. carbamazepine, abacavir).
In the present study, we demonstrated in a Thai population that the risk of allopurinolinduced SJS/TEN was significantly greater in patients with HLA-B*5801 when
compared with those that did not carry this allele, with an odds ratio of 348.3. The
sensitivity and specificity of the HLA-B*5801 allele for prediction of allopurinolinduced SJS/TEN were 100% and 87%, respectively. Our results suggest that HLAB*5801 may be a sensitive genetic marker for screening Thai individuals that may be at
risk for allopurinol-induced life-threatening SJS and TEN.
I warrant that this manuscript has been read by all co-authors and I have
submitted this manuscript on behalf of all the authors with their full consent. I would
be very appreciated if you could consider our manuscript for publication in your
journal.
Sincerely Yours,
(Dr………………………………………..)
Letter to editor after manuscript has been accepted
………………………………………………
………………………………………………
Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University
Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand
Tel / Fax 66-43-348397
Email: wichitt@kku.ac.th
7 July 2009
Prof. Michel Eichelbaum
Pharmacogenetics and Genomics
Subject : Revised manuscript submission (PGEN-2009-107)
Dear Prof. Michel Eichelbaum,
Thank you very much for considering our manuscript entitled "Strong
association between HLA-B*5801 and allopurinol -induced Stevens- Johnson
Syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis in a Thai population (PGEN-2009-107)” to
be published in your journal. We have revised the manuscript according to the
reviewers’ comments.
We would be very appreciated if you could consider our manuscript to publish
as original article in your journal.
Sincerely Yours,
(Dr. ………………………….)
Response to Reviewers
Reviewer #1: This study investigated the association in a Thai population between
allopurino-induced SJS/TEN and HLA-B*5801 which was reported to have a strong
correlation with allopurinol-induced SCAR in Han Chinese. This is the first report that
the extremely strong association between the allele and allopurinol-induced SJS/TEN
was observed in other ethnic groups than Han Chinese. However, maybe, it appears
too redundant and could be shortened. Introduction, Discussion and citations from
literatures appear too long and Table 3 can be deleted. The reviewer feels that it is
suitable to publish the manuscript as a Short Communication.
Response: Thank you very much for valuable comments. We did revised and shortened
the manuscript as suggested. The introduction, results, discussion and citations have
been revised to avoid the redundancy. We still what to keep Table 3 because it could
give all the detail of the genes that we investigated. We would like to ask the reviewer
to consider our manuscript as original article instead of the short communication.
Reviewer #2: This article shows that HLA-B*5801 is as highly positive in patients of
allopurinol-induced SJS and TEN in Thai population as in Han Chinese population,
too. As for drug reactions-HLA relationship, there are regional/ethnic discrepancies and
the impact of HLA-type for pathogenesis is still controversial. Therefore, this paper
will provide new information and will be appropriate for publication in
Pharmacogenomics.
Minor comment:
Do you have information of HLA-A type of the patients, especially A*3303?
Response: Thank you for accepting our manuscript for publication.
We did not have any information on HLA-A genotypes of the studied population since
it has been reported in Han Chinese that the association between HLA-A*3303 and
allopurinol-induced SJS/TEN the association was much weaker than those found with
the HLA-B*5801{Hung, 2005 #71}. Therefore, we haven’t analyzed the HLA-A
genotypes in our studied population.