Treatment of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy Based on Mitochondrial Quality Control： A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy（DPN） is a neurodegenerative disease of diabetes mellitus involving peripheral nervous system damage， which is characterized by axonal degenerative necrosis， Schwann cell apoptosis and demyelination of nerve myelin sheath as the main pathological features， this disease is highly prevalent and is a major cause of disability in diabetic patients. Currently， the pathogenesis of DPN may be related to oxidative stress， inflammatory response， metabolic abnormality， and microcirculation disorder. The treatment of DPN in modern medicine mainly starts from controlling blood glucose， nourishing nerves and improving microcirculation， which can only alleviate the clinical symptoms of patients， and it is difficult to fundamentally improve the pathological damage of peripheral nerves. Mitochondrial quality control refers to the physiological mechanisms that can maintain the morphology and functional homeostasis of mitochondria， including mitochondrial biogenesis， mitochondrial dynamics， mitochondrial oxidative stress and mitochondrial autophagy， and abnormal changes of which may cause damage to peripheral nerves. After reviewing the literature， it was found that traditional Chinese medicine（TCM） can improve the low level of mitochondrial biogenesis in DPN， maintain the balance of mitochondrial dynamics， inhibit mitochondrial oxidative stress and mitochondrial autophagy， and delay apoptosis of Schwann cells and neural axon damage， which has obvious effects on the treatment of DPN. With the deepening of research， mitochondrial quality control may become one of the potential targets for the research of new anti-DPN drugs， therefore， this paper summarized the research progress of TCM in treating DPN based on four aspects of mitochondrial quality control， with the aim of providing a theoretical research basis for the discovery of new drugs.