Experimental Research Progress on Prevention and Treatment of Cognitive Dysfunction in Diabetes Mellitusby Traditional Chinese Medicine / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Cognitive dysfunction of diabetes mellitus is one of the complications of diabetes mellitus. Its clinical manifestations include decreased memory ability, learning ability, language expression and comprehension ability, and inattention. The pathogenesis is complex, which is related to various factors such as abnormal glucose metabolism, abnormal lipid metabolism, insulin resistance, abnormal phosphorylation of Tau protein, inflammatory reaction, oxidative stress, cholinergic system injury, neuronal cell apoptosis, et al. Although traditional hypoglycemic drugs such as metformin and glibenclamide have a little effect in controlling diabetic cognitive impairment, but there has no effective drugs for this disease which causes a heavy burden on families and society. The concepts of holism and preventing disease of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)have obvious advantages in delaying the occurrence and development the complications.TCM believes that the basic pathogenesis of diabetic cognitive dysfunction is based on deficiency complicated with excess. The therapeutic principles includes tonifying the kidney essence, reinforcing Qi and nourishing Yin, dissipating phlegm for resuscitation, and promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis.In recent years, there have been a lot of research achievements on the prevention and treatment of cognitive dysfunction in diabetes mellitus with TCM. Researchers of TCM do abundant researches, and find that TCM can improve cognitive dysfunction by lowering blood glucose,promoting intracellular cholesterol excretion, improving insulin resistance, lowering p-Tau, anti-oxidative stress, inhibiting inflammatory reactions, improving the function of cholinergic nerve, inhibiting neuronal apoptosis. The article reviews the experimental research on the prevention and treatment of cognitive dysfunction of diabetes mellitus by TCM and its extracts and reveals the target and mechanism, in order to provide sufficient scientific basis for TCM to prevent cognitive dysfunction of diabetes mellitus.