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REVIEW article

Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Renal Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1539886
This article is part of the Research Topic Reviews in Renal Pharmacology: 2024 View all 7 articles

Nephroprotective effects of substances of medicine food homology and traditional Chinese medicine phytochemicals against acute kidney injury

Provisionally accepted
Ling Chen Ling Chen 1Yanyan Deng Yanyan Deng 2Jing Hu Jing Hu 1Xuezhong Gong Xuezhong Gong 3*
  • 1 Seventh People's Hospital of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
  • 2 Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 3 Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Acute kidney injury (AKI) represents significant medical challenges due to its elevated rates of morbidity and mortality, with limited therapeutic options currently available. Hence, the exploration of novel medicinal treatments for AKI management remains vital. Substances of medicine food homology (SMFH), referring to substances having characteristics of both food and medicine, have been applied in China for thousands years.They could be used for daily diets and body conditioning. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), with its naturally derived components and demonstrated effectiveness, presents distinctive benefits in AKI treatment. Numerous studies have shown that SMFH and TCM phytochemicals could function satisfactorily with nephroprotective effects and have a significant effect on alleviating AKI as well as its complications. In this review, the pathogenesis of AKI was illustrated. We concentrated on SMFH and TCM phytochemicals against AKI and tried to summarize the underlying mechanisms in various kinds of AKI, highlighting the crucial phytochemical components in AKI prevention and therapy. Besides, strategies for SMFH and TCM phytochemicals globalization are analysed. This review comprehensively reveals that SMFH and TCM phytochemicals exhibit promising potential for AKI intervention by targeting various signal pathways and targets, which would contribute to AKI’s cognition, preventive treatments, as well as global promotion.

    Keywords: Nephroprotective effects, substances of medicine food homology, Traditional Chinese Medicine, phytochemicals, Acute Kidney Injury

    Received: 05 Dec 2024; Accepted: 20 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Deng, Hu and Gong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xuezhong Gong, Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200071, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.