Background: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus has been increased dramatically which in turn leads to complications including cardiovascular diseases, diabetic kidney disease, and substantially end-stage renal disease.
Methods: We reviewed articles discussing the pathophysiology of diabetic nephropathy with new agents that may be useful in the management of the disease. We used PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar and the Open-access searching engines.
Results: The recent recommendations primarily depend on glycaemic and blood pressure control and the use of standard renin-angiotensin system blockade. Currently, the use of agents with nephroprotective effects beyond the hyperglycaemic lowering effect has been evidenced clinically.
Conclusions: In his review, the pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, and lines of treatment of diabetic nephropathy are discussed. In addition, a focus on the clinical role and nephroprotective effects of the emerging therapeutic class, dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-4) inhibitors, is addressed in detail.
Keywords: CKD; DPP-4 inhibitors; T2D; albuminuria; diabetic nephropathy.
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.