[Diabetic Kidney Disease - How to Protect the Kidney?]

In diabetes, progression of cardio-renal disease is still the most important determinant of disease burden. Hence, the potential of glycaemic control is not the only measure any more to decide whether a new therapeutic approach is selected. Therapies with compelling cardiovascular and renal-protective effects are available. The two most promising new treatment concepts are sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibition and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonism. For both treatment concepts, prominent reductions in cardiovascular event rates and renal disease progression have been proven.To date, these beneficial effects appear to be more significant with SGLT-2 inhibitors than with GLP-1 receptor agonists, and further clinical trials with SGLT-2 inhibitors in patients with more advanced diabetic and non-diabetic kidney disease are currently underway. Furthermore, there are two new treatment concepts for attenuation of diabetic kidney disease progression close to finalization: selective antagonism of the mineralocorticoid receptor with finerenone and selective antagonism of the endothelin-1 receptor with atrasentan. Hence, in the near future, more treatment approaches might be available to face the major challenges in diabetes mellitus.