Du K, Jaeschke H. Liuweiwuling tablets protect against acetaminophen hepatotoxicity: What is the protective mechanism? World J Gastroenterol 2016; 22(11): 3302-3304 [PMID: 27004010 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i11.3302]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hartmut Jaeschke, PhD, ATS, Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Blvd., MS 1018, Kansas City, KS 66160, United States. hjaeschke@kumc.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Toxicology
Article-Type of This Article
Letters To The Editor
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 Gastroenterol. Mar 21, 2016; 22(11): 3302-3304 Published online Mar 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i11.3302
Liuweiwuling tablets protect against acetaminophen hepatotoxicity: What is the protective mechanism?
Kuo Du, Hartmut Jaeschke
Kuo Du, Hartmut Jaeschke, Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, United States
Author contributions: Du K wrote this letter; Jaeschke H revised the letter.
Supported by Grants from the National Institutes of Health (No. R01 DK102142 and No. R01 AA12916); and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (No. 8 P20 GM103549-07) of the National Institutes of Health.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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: Hartmut Jaeschke, PhD, ATS, Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Blvd., MS 1018, Kansas City, KS 66160, United States. hjaeschke@kumc.edu
Telephone: +1-913-5887969 Fax: +1-913-5887501
Received: August 19, 2015 Peer-review started: August 20, 2015 First decision: September 19, 2015 Revised: September 29, 2015 Accepted: December 8, 2015 Article in press: December 8, 2015 Published online: March 21, 2016
Abstract
Study of the effects of natural products, including traditional Chinese Medicines, on acetaminophen hepatotoxicity has gained considerable popularity in recent years, and some of them showed positive results and even promising therapeutic potentials. A recent report suggested that Liuweiwuling tablets protect against acetaminophen hepatotoxicity and promote liver regeneration in a rodent model through alleviating the inflammatory response. However, several concerns exist regarding the limitations of the experimental design and interpretation of the data presented in this manuscript.
Core tip: The reduced inflammatory response and the increased liver regeneration by Liuweiwuling treatment are more likely secondary effects of the protection by inhibition of metabolic activation of acetaminophen rather than the primary mechanism of protection.
