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Potential Medicinal Value of Rhein for Diabetic Kidney Disease

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Abstract

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the primary cause of mortality among diabetic patients. With the increasing prevalence of diabetes, it has become a major concern around the world. The therapeutic effect of clinical use of drugs is far from expected, and therapy choices to slow the progression of DKD remain restricted. Therefore, research on new drugs and treatments for DKD has been a hot topic in the medical field. It has been found that rhein has the potential to target the pathogenesis of DKD and has a wide range of pharmacological effects on DKD, such as anti-nephritis, decreasing blood glucose, controlling blood lipids and renal protection. In recent years, the medical value of rhein in the treatment of diabetes, DKD and renal disease has gradually attracted worldwide attention, especially its potential in the treatment of DKD. Currently, DKD can only be treated with medications from a single symptom and are accompanied by adverse effects, while rhein improves DKD with a multi-pathway and multi-target approach. Therefore, this paper reviews the therapeutic effects of rhein on DKD, and proposes solutions to the limitations of rhein itself, in order to provide valuable references for the clinical application of rhein in DKD and the development of new drugs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Shaanxi Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine for TCM Compatibility, Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xi’an, 712046, China

    Xi Mao, Ding-qiao Xu, Shi-jun Yue, Rui-jia Fu, Sai Zhang & Yu-ping Tang

Authors
  1. Xi Mao
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  2. Ding-qiao Xu
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  3. Shi-jun Yue
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  4. Rui-jia Fu
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  5. Sai Zhang
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  6. Yu-ping Tang
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Contributions

Tang YP conceived and designed the review. Mao X searched the literature and drafted the manuscript. Xu DQ and Fu RJ examined the literature and made the figures. Zhang S edited the manuscript. Yue SJ and Tang YP made a critical revision of the review. All authors contributed to the article and approved the final version for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yu-ping Tang.

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The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2019YFC1711000) and Subject Innovation Team of Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine (No. 2019-YL10)

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Mao, X., Xu, Dq., Yue, Sj. et al. Potential Medicinal Value of Rhein for Diabetic Kidney Disease. Chin. J. Integr. Med. 29, 951–960 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-022-3591-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-022-3591-y

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