Alprostadil combined with a-LA effective for senile diabetic nephropathy: Study

A team of researchers from China conducted a study to investigate the clinical efficacy of alprostadil combined with α-Lipoic acid (α-LA) in the treatment of senile diabetic nephropathy (SDN) and the combination's effect on the serum chemerin and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) expressions. The researchers included seventy-six patients with diabetic nephropathy (DN) admitted to our hospital from March 2018 to October 2019 were recruited as the research cohort. Among them, 36 patients who were administered alprostadil monotherapy were placed in the control group (CG), and the remaining 40 patients administered α-LA in addition to the alprostadil were placed in the research group (RG). The treatment effectiveness rate, the incidence of adverse reactions, and the changes in the renal function indexes (BUN, SCr, UAER) and the blood glucose indexes (FPG, 2hPG) were compared between the two groups.

The results of the study are as follows:

• The total effective rate in the research group (RG) was significantly higher than the total effective rate in the control group (CG)
• The renal function and blood glucose indexes dropped significantly after the treatment
• The chemerin and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) levels were significantly reduced in both groups after the treatment and the chemerin and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) expressions in the research group (RG) were significantly lower than they were in the control group (CG)

Thus, the researchers concluded that alprostadil combined with α-LA is better than alprostadil monotherapy in the treatment of diabetic nephropathy (DN) because it can improve the effectiveness rate, reduce blood glucose, and improve the renal function while effectively reducing patients' serum chemerin and NGAL levels.

Reference:

The effects of alprostadil combined with α-lipoic acid in the treatment of senile diabetic nephropathy by Xiaohong Cao and Ping Chen published in the American Journal of Translational Research

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8507045/