Mitochondrial toxicity evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine injections with a dual in vitro approach

Abstract

Graphical AbstractA dual in vitro mitochondrial toxicity assay approach combing the conventional “glucose/galactose” assay in HepG2 cells with the cytotoxic assay in mitochondrial respiration deficient cells was established in this study. Using this platform, we systematically assessed the mitochondrial toxicity of TCM injections for the first time. Four TCM injections were identified with potential mitochondrial toxicity. Their toxic ingredients were predicted by molecular docking and validated by the dual in vitro approach.