Mitochondria-Targeted Nanosystems: A New Strategy for the Treatment of Acute Kidney Injury

Abstract

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a clinical syndrome of sudden or prolonged abrupt decline or loss of renal function with a high mortality rate.There are several common causes of AKI, such as diabetic nephropathy, renal ischaemia-reperfusion and haemolysis. The treatment of AKI with nanomedicines is an active area of research, with the advantages of good bioavailability and the ability to reduce the pharmacological toxicity of their drugs to other organs. Current studies have shown that mitochondria play an important role in the occurrence and development of AKI, and these mechanisms include the maintenance of structural and functional stability, and the mitochondrial quality control mechanism is in homeostasis. Therefore, the study of mitochondria-targeted functional nanosystems is a hot topic in current research. This review summarises the specific targets of mitochondria-targeted nanosystems constructed by researchers in the past 5 years in the treatment of acute kidney injury, and describes their major breakthroughs in the field of mitochondria targeting.