Drug-Induced Liver Injury: Mechanisms, Types and Biomarkers

Title:Drug-Induced Liver Injury: Mechanisms, Types and Biomarkers

Volume: 20 Issue: 24

Author(s): M. Vinken, M. Maes, T. Vanhaecke and V. Rogiers

Affiliation:

Keywords: Biomarkers, drugs, hepatotoxicity, mechanisms, hepatitis, cholestasis, steatosis, fibrosis.

Abstract: Drug-induced liver injury is a ubiquitous issue in clinical settings and pharmaceutical industry. Hepatotoxicity elicited by drugs may be intrinsic or idiosyncratic, both which are driven by different molecular mechanisms. Recently, a unifying mechanistic model of drug-induced liver injury has been introduced. According to this model, drug-induced hepatotoxicity relies on 3 consecutive steps, namely an initial cellular insult that leads to the occurrence of mitochondrial permeability transition, which in turn ultimately burgeons into the onset of cell death. Clinically, drug-induced liver injury can be manifested in a number of acute and chronic conditions, including hepatitis, cholestasis, steatosis and fibrosis. These pathologies can be diagnosed and monitored by addressing well-established physical, clinical chemistry and histopathological biomarkers. In the last few years, several novel read-outs of drug-induced liver injury have been proposed, involving genetic, epigenetic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic parameters. These new concepts and recent developments in the field of drug-induced liver injury are revised in the current paper.

Cite this article as:

Vinken M., Maes M., Vanhaecke T. and Rogiers V., Drug-Induced Liver Injury: Mechanisms, Types and Biomarkers, Current Medicinal Chemistry 2013; 20 (24) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0929867311320240006