Research Advances of Mylabris-induced Hepatorenal Toxicity in Recent Years

Mylabris, a classical anti-tumor traditional Chinese medicine, belongs to insect of the Coriolus family. Cantharidin (CTD) is the main active ingredient of Mylabris, with the unique advantages of promoting apoptosis of tumor cells and enhancing immune function by elevating the number of leukocytes. It has been used as a classical drug with combination of chemotherapy. However, there are frequent cases of Mylabris poisoning due to accidental ingestion, polyphagia and clinical application. Its severe toxic effects cannot be ignored, especially in nephrotoxicity and hepatoxicity. The mechanism of target organ injury is not very clear, which greatly restricts its clinical application. Therefore, there is an urgent need to clarify the toxic pathological damage, toxic mechanism. In this paper, the recent studies on the hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity of Mylabris were reviewed, and the general toxicity rule, toxicological mechanism and detoxification protection strategy were analyzed, so as to provide reference for the detoxification strategy of Mylabris and the research and development of new drugs.