Non-invasive metabolic biomarkers for early diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy: Meta-analysis of profiling metabolomics studies

AimDiabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the worst complications of diabetes. Despite a growing number of DN metabolite profiling studies, most studies are suffering from inconsistency in their findings. The main goal of this meta-analysis was to reach to a consensus panel of significantly dysregulated metabolites as potential biomarkers in DN.Data synthesisTo identify the significant dysregulated metabolites, meta-analysis was performed by “vote-counting rank” and “robust rank aggregation” strategies. Bioinformatics analyses were performed to identify the most affected genes and pathways. Among 44 selected studies consisting of 98 metabolite profiles, 17 metabolites (9 up-regulated and 8 down-regulated metabolites), were identified as significant ones by both the meta-analysis strategies (p-value<0.05 and OR>2 or <0.5) and selected as DN metabolite meta-signature. Furthermore, enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of various effective biological pathways in DN pathogenesis, such as urea cycle, TCA cycle, glycolysis, and amino acid metabolisms. Finally, by performing a meta-analysis over existing time-course studies in DN, the results indicated that lactic acid, hippuric acid, allantoin (in urine), and glutamine (in blood), are the topmost non-invasive early diagnostic biomarkers.ConclusionThe identified metabolites are potentially involved in diabetic nephropathy pathogenesis and could be considered as biomarkers or drug targets in the disease.Prospero registration numberCRD42020197697.     

加味济生肾气汤对STZ诱导的糖尿病肾病大鼠足细胞及其自噬的影响＊

目的 探究加味济生肾气汤对糖尿病肾病大鼠肾脏足细胞和自噬作用的影响，为糖尿病肾病的中药治疗奠定一定基础。方法 将66只SD大鼠按照随机数字表法分成对照组，模型组，羟苯磺酸钙组，加味济生肾气汤低、中、高剂量组。造模后，各组分别以生理盐水，羟苯磺酸钙，1 mL/kg/d、4 mL/kg/d、10 mL/kg/d药物浓度的加味济生肾气汤处理。6周后，取大鼠肾脏，电镜观察肾脏足细胞形态；免疫组化检测Nephrin的表达；Western blot检测LC3II/I和P62的表达。结果 模型组大鼠肾小球基底膜可见显著增厚，足细胞排列较紊乱，数目减少，足突融合，在加味济生肾气汤中剂量组和高剂量组中上述症状得以缓解；与对照组比较，模型组大鼠肾组织中的Nephrin水平均明显降低，LC3II/I比值显著下降，P62水平显著升高。与模型组比较，加味济生肾气汤高剂量组大鼠肾组织中的Nephrin水平均明显升高，LC3II/I比值均显著升高，P62水平显著降低（P < 0.05）。结论 加味济生肾气汤通过提高自噬水平，减少足突发生融合，提高肾脏的过滤功能。     

基于“中医传承辅助平台”软件挖掘年莉教授治疗糖尿病肾病的用药规律

[目的] 采用"中医传承辅助平台"软件，探讨年莉教授治疗糖尿病肾病的用药规律。[方法] 将2016年11月-2019年4月年莉教授治疗糖尿病肾病的中药处方信息输入中医传承辅助平台系统，采用频次分析、组方规律分析方法挖掘、探讨年莉教授治疗糖尿病肾病的临床用药特点。[结果] 对年莉教授治疗糖尿病肾病158首处方进行分析，涉及中药207味，使用频次在前10位的药物分别为白芍、川芎、当归、半夏、刺蒺藜、丹参、泽泻、牛膝、厚朴，白术获得9组药对、3组核心药物组合。[结论] 年莉教授治疗糖尿病肾病经验丰富，高频药物的配伍体现了年莉教授多采用平肝疏肝，补血养阴，活血化瘀的治疗原则。期望能为临床治疗和药物研发提供参考，并为糖尿病肾病在泰国的治疗提供新的理念和借鉴。     

滋阴活血汤治疗早期糖尿病肾病临床研究

目的:观察滋阴活血汤治疗早期糖尿病肾病的临床疗效。方法:选取130例早期糖尿病肾病患者,随机分为对照组和观察组,各65例。对照组给予降糖等西医对症治疗,观察组在对照组基础上给予滋阴活血汤,两组疗程均为4周。观察两组治疗前后血液流变学变化,采用全自动生化分析仪进行检测;核因子(nuclear factor,NF)-κB变化,采用双抗体夹心酶联免疫吸附试验测定;24小时尿蛋白变化,采用放射免疫法测定;两组治疗前后症状总积分变化。结果:治疗后,观察组治疗后全血黏度、红细胞压积比、纤维蛋白原水平均明显低于对照组(P0.05);观察组治疗后NF-κB及24小时尿蛋白水平均低于对照组(P0.05);观察组治疗后症状总积分明显低于对照组(P0.01);对照组有效率为81.5%,观察组为93.8%,组间比较,差异有统计学意义(χ~2=4.561,P0.05)。两组治疗中未见严重不良反应。结论:滋阴活血汤治疗早期糖尿病肾病疗效确切,安全;能有效改善患者血液流变学,降低NF-κB及24小时尿蛋白水平。     

Aspirin in a diabetic retinopathy setting: Insights from NO BLIND study

Background and aimsDiabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most common microvascular complication of diabetes. Diabetic macroangiopathies, particularly cardiovascular (CV) diseases, seem closely related to diabetes microvascular complications. Aspirin represents the most prescribed compound in CV prevention. Aspirin impact on DR is still object of debate. As it is already recommended among diabetics at high CV risk, aim of this study was to assess a potential relationship between DR and aspirin therapy, in a type 2 diabetes cohort of patients screened through telemedicine.Methods and resultsNO Blind is a cross-sectional, multicenter, observational study, which involved nine Italian outpatient clinics. Primary endpoint was the assessment of the relationship between aspirin treatment and DR. 2068 patients were enrolled in the study, subsequently split in two subpopulations according to either the presence or absence of DR. Overall, 995 subjects were under aspirin therapy. After adjusting for most common potential confounders, age and gender, aspirin reveals significantly associated with DR (OR: 1.72, 95%CI: 1.58–2.89, p = 0.002) and proliferative DR (PDR) (OR: 1.89, 95%CI: 1.24–2.84, p = 0.003). Association comes lost further adjusting for MACEs (OR: 1.28, 95%CI: 0.85–1.42, p = 0.157) (Model 4) and eGFR (OR: 0.93; 95%CI: 0.71–1.22; p = 0.591) (Model 5).ConclusionIn this multicenter cross-sectional study including a large sample of outpatients with T2DM, we showed that aspirin was not associated with DR after adjustment for several cardio-metabolic confounders. However, as partially confirmed by our findings, and related to the well-known pro-hemorrhagic effect of aspirin, its use should be individually tailored, even by telemedicine tools.