Résumé
Kidney, as an important metabolic organ of humans, has many functions such as excreting metabolic waste, maintaining electrolyte and acid-base balance, controlling blood pressure and secreting hormones. Kidney disease is a common disease which endangers human health and has become a global public health problem. The rapid increase in the number of patients with kidney disease and the continuously increased treatment costs have brought a heavy burden to society and families. Western medicine is developing rapidly in the treatment of kidney diseases and has a definite effect, but improper using of Western medicine may easily aggravate kidney damage. In recent years, Chinese medicine and monomers have been widely recognized and applied in the treatment of kidney disease due to the advantages of multiple targets and pathways. Berberine (BBR) is a quinoline alkaloid extracted mainly from the Chinese medicine Coptis Chinesis Franch, and has a variety of pharmacological effects and excellent renal protection. BBR has the therapeutic characteristics of multi-target and multi-channel, which make it have great potential in the treatment of renal diseases. The pharmacological mechanism of BBR, including anti-oxidative stress, anti-inflammatory, lowering blood sugar, blood pressure and blood lipid, anti-tumor, etc. and combined with the clinical application of BBR in diabetic nephropathy, acute kidney injury and renal cancer, etc. has been summarized in present paper, so as to provide new ideas for the treatment of kidney disease and lay the foundation for the integration of Chinese and Western medicine.