Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Diabetic Nephropathy: Nontraditional Therapeutic Opportunities

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a progressive microvascular diabetic complication. Growing evidence shows that persistent mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to the progression of renal diseases, including DN, as it alters mitochondrial homeostasis and, in turn, affects normal kidney function. Pharmacological regulation of mitochondrial networking is a promising therapeutic strategy for preventing and restoring renal function in DN. In this review, we have surveyed recent advances in elucidating the mitochondrial networking and signaling pathways in physiological and pathological contexts. Additionally, we have considered the contributions of nontraditional therapy that ameliorate mitochondrial dysfunction and discussed their molecular mechanism, highlighting the potential value of nontraditional therapies, such as herbal medicine and lifestyle interventions, in therapeutic interventions for DN. The generation of new insights using mitochondrial networking will facilitate further investigations on nontraditional therapies for DN.