Raschi E, De Ponti F. Drug- and herb-induced liver injury: Progress, current challenges and emerging signals of post-marketing risk. World J Hepatol 2015; 7(13): 1761-1771 [PMID: 26167249 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i13.1761]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Fabrizio De Ponti, MD, PhD, Pharmacology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Via Irnerio, 48, I-40126 Bologna, Italy. fabrizio.deponti@unibo.it
Research Domain of This Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Hepatol. Jul 8, 2015; 7(13): 1761-1771 Published online Jul 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i13.1761
Drug- and herb-induced liver injury: Progress, current challenges and emerging signals of post-marketing risk
Emanuel Raschi, Fabrizio De Ponti
Emanuel Raschi, Fabrizio De Ponti, Pharmacology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, I-40126 Bologna, Italy
Author contributions: Raschi E and De Ponti F conceived the study; Raschi E drafted the first version of the manuscript; De Ponti F provided substantial contribution to the discussion; both authors provided comments to the first draft and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Fabrizio De Ponti, MD, PhD, Pharmacology Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Via Irnerio, 48, I-40126 Bologna, Italy. fabrizio.deponti@unibo.it
Telephone: +39-051-2091805 Fax: +39-051-2091780
Received: April 10, 2015 Peer-review started: April 13, 2015 First decision: May 14, 2015 Revised: May 21, 2015 Accepted: June 18, 2015 Article in press: June 19, 2015 Published online: July 8, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Drug- and herb-induced liver injury remains a clinical challenge, attracting multidisciplinary interest for its translational aspects (from bench to bedside approach and vice versa). When considering differential diagnosis in patients with liver damage, clinicians should always keep in mind drugs and herbs as possible liver offenders, especially in subjects with comorbidities requiring long-term multiple therapies (likelihood of drug interactions). Drug withdrawal and therapy reconciliation represent key issues in patient’ management to minimize the risk of acute liver failure. Notwithstanding the progress in the tools for early detection of hepatotoxicity, there is growing literature on drugs and herbs possibly associated with liver injury in the post-marketing phase: often undetected during drug development, signals of liver toxicity emerge from spontaneous reporting systems and registries. This calls for a joint, multidisciplinary action to improve predictivity of pre-clinical assays, continuing post-marketing surveillance and designing ad hoc population-based studies.
