Adverse Drug Reactions and Mechanisms of Drug Allergy
摘要
Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are any harmful, or unintended, responses to a medication. They can be categorised as the side-effects of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), or the excipients included in a drug’s formulation. Drug allergy is a specific Type B ADR involving an immune-mediated response which occurs when the immune system mistakenly identifies a drug as an antigen. The immune response may come about by the drug binding to a specific antigenic carrier or by interacting directly with certain components, or by direct activation, of the immune system. It is mediated by IgE, IgG, IgM or T cells corresponding to the Type I to IV hypersensitivity reactions first described by Gell and Coombs.