A Review of Traditional Chinese Medicine on Treatment of Diabetic Nephropathy and the Involved Mechanisms.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a common microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus (DM), which can lead to renal failure in diabetic patients. At present, the first-line drugs for DN are mainly the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers, and the latest approved aldosterone receptor antagonist finerenone, which delay the progression of DN to end-stage renal disease (ESRD), but the therapeutic effect is still not ideal. With a history of thousands of years, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has rich experience in the treatment of DN.