Observational case highlights drug-induced bullous pemphigoid in diabetes patients after COVID-19, suggesting immune interactions.
Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors are widely used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Recently, their association with drug-induced bullous pemphigoid (BP) has attracted increasing attention. In this report, we present a case of an 84-year-old woman who developed BP after COVID-19 infection while taking a DPP-4 inhibitor. The temporal relationship between drug administration, viral infection, and onset of autoimmune disease indicates a possible interaction between COVID-19-induced immune dysregulation and DPP-4 inhibition. The coexistence of these factors may increase the risk of developing BP in older patients with diabetes, which warrants careful monitoring.
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Fukata et al. (2025) studied this question.
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