Doxorubicin is an anthracycline antitumor drug widely used in clinical practice, but its therapeutic value is significantly limited due to adverse reactions such as dose-dependent cardiotoxicity and nephrotoxicity, and there is an urgent need to find preventive and therapeutic drugs. Recent studies have found that abnormal activation of NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) is one of the important mechanisms underlying doxorubicin-induced toxicity in different target organs, whereas traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its active components can effectively inhibit the NLRP3 inflammasome and alleviate doxorubicin-induced toxicity. By systematically summarizing recent experimental research on how TCM and its active components ameliorate doxorubicin toxicity through regulating the NLRP3 inflammasome, it was found that they can alleviate doxorubicin toxicity in terms of cardiac and renal protection. These studies provide important theoretical evidence and potential therapeutic strategies for using TCM to intervene in the related adverse effects of doxorubicin.

doxorubicin toxicity  /  NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3  /  traditional Chinese medicine  /  cardiotoxicity  /  nephrotoxicity  /  hepatotoxicity