Liu Changxiao, Fan Huirong, Li Yazhuo, Xiao Xiaohe
Research Center for New Drug Evaluation, Tianjin Institute of Pharmaceutical Research, Tianjin 300193, China.
Institute of Radiation Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin 300192, China.
Biomed Res Int. 2016;2016:7150391. doi: 10.1155/2016/7150391. Epub 2016 Dec 18.
In general, herbal medicines have been considered as safe by the general public, since they are naturally occurring and have been applied in treatment for over thousands of years. As the use of herbal medicine is rapidly increasing globally, the potential toxicity of herbal drugs, in particular drug-induced liver injury (DILI), has now become a serious medical issue. According to the literature, the authors analyzed and discussed the hepatotoxicity problem of Chinese herbal medicines (CHM), including global overview on herbal-induced liver injury (HILI), current research progress on toxic CHM, diagnosis and treatment of HILI, and modern approaches and technologies of study of hepatotoxicity. As to promote the recognition of HILI and tackle the issue, a guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of HILI has recently been drafted by Chinese scientists. As suggested by the guideline, the hepatotoxicity issue of CHM, as a matter of fact, is overestimated. Up to date, the investigation of hepatotoxicity of CHM is now booming with worldwide application of CHM. This review therefore provides useful information for investigating hepatotoxicity of herbal medicine and characterizing DILI caused by CHM. In addition, authors describe in which way further efforts should be made to study the rationale of CHM and liver injury.
总体而言，草药一直被公众认为是安全的，因为它们天然存在且已应用于治疗逾数千年。随着草药在全球的使用迅速增加，草药药物的潜在毒性，尤其是药物性肝损伤（DILI），现已成为一个严重的医学问题。根据文献，作者分析并讨论了中草药（CHM）的肝毒性问题，包括草药性肝损伤（HILI）的全球概况、有毒中草药的当前研究进展、HILI的诊断和治疗，以及肝毒性研究的现代方法和技术。为了提高对HILI的认识并解决该问题，中国科学家最近起草了一份HILI诊断和治疗指南。正如该指南所指出的，事实上，CHM的肝毒性问题被高估了。迄今为止，随着CHM在全球的广泛应用，对CHM肝毒性的研究正在蓬勃发展。因此，本综述为研究草药肝毒性和表征由CHM引起的DILI提供了有用信息。此外，作者描述了应如何进一步努力研究CHM与肝损伤之间的原理。
