LIAN Xueping, AI Ni, LU Xiaoyan, FAN Xiaohui *

Department of Chinese Medicine Science and Engineering, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University,

Hangzhou 310058, China

[Abstract] Continuous advances in "omics" technologies have brought toxicogenomics into sharp focus in the

medical community. Toxicogenomics has been increasingly utilized in studies of the safety of traditional Chinese

medicine (TCM). Toxicogenomic technology, which assesses the systematic changes of the body upon exposure

to toxins at the genome-wide level, has been extensively adopted in studies that are concerned with identifying

toxicity biomarkers and investigating mechanisms and predictions of toxicity. This study concisely summarizes

the present status of toxicogenomics and highlights its current applications in TCM safety by discussing the

mechanism of TCM toxicity, the identification of potential biomarkers studies on of toxicity, and the examination

of toxicity dynamics pertinent to drug compatibility.

[Key words] Toxicogenomics; Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM); Gene chip; Database; Safety assessment;

Toxicology