Traditional Chinese Medicine Regulates Notch Signaling Pathway to Prevent and Treat Renal Diseases：A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

As common and frequently-occurring disorders in clinic practice，renal diseases are characterized by the impairment of kidney structure and function due to a variety of reasons and can be divided into primary，secondary， and hereditary types. Clinically，the impairment of kidney structure and function is usually a chronic progressive process，and the resulting chronic renal diseases have become a major public health problem endangering human health worldwide. Notch signaling pathway affects cell proliferation，differentiation，migration，growth， and apoptosis and determines the fate of cells. Abnormal expression or gene mutation of Notch will cause tissue damage， followed by the occurrence and development of a variety of renal diseases. Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）， as an important means to prevent and treat renal diseases，has the characteristics of acting on multiple targets and signaling pathways with multiple components，and is often used as a routine or potential complementary therapy for the treatment of chronic renal diseases and also a source of new drug discovery. In recent years， considering the limitations of western medicine in treating renal diseases，more and more scholars have begun to take Notch signaling pathway as the breakthrough point for exploring TCM prevention and treatment of renal diseases. They have conducted clinical and experimental studies on the regulation of Notch signaling pathway by a variety of individual Chinese herbs or their extracts，Chinese patent medicines， and Chinese medicinal compounds，and found that TCM exerted the renal protective effects by inhibiting the Notch signaling pathway. By collecting relevant literatures on TCM prevention and treatment of various renal diseases，especially those concerning TCM regulation of Notch signaling pathway for preventing and treating such chronic renal diseases as diabetic nephropathy，immunoglobulin A （IgA） nephropathy，renal fibrosis，membranous nephropathy，focal segmental glomerulosclerosis， and renal cell carcinoma，this paper summarized the current research status，in order to provide reference for clinical prevention and treatment of various renal diseases and build up the factual basis for the universal application of TCM.