Curative effect and mechanism of α lipoic acid combined with epalrestat and methylcobalamin in the treatment of type 2 diabetic peripheral neuropathy

Abstract

Objective To investigate the curative effect and mechanism of α lipoic acid combined with epalrestat and methylcobalamin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) complicated with peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Methods A total of 160 cases of patients with DPN were randomly divided into the control group (treated with methylcobalamin and epalrestat) and the observation group (treated with methylcobalamin, epalrestat and α lipoic acid), and all patients were treated for 4 weeks. The therapeutic effect, nerve conduction velocity, oxidative stress index and related proteins expression in serum were observed in two groups. Results The effective rate of treatment in the observation group was higher than that in the control group (87.50% vs 75.0%) (χ2 = 4.103, P<0.05). After treatment, the sensory nerve conduction velocity (SNCV) and motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV) of median nerve and common peroneal nerve were significantly better in the observation group than the control group (P<0.05). After treatment, the level of superoxide dismutase (SOD) was significantly higher in the observation group than the control group, while the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) was significantly lower the control group (P<0.05). After treatment, the level of Bcl-2 protein was significantly higher in observation group than the control group, while the levels of Bax and Caspase-3 proteins were significantly lower than the control group (P<0.05). Conclusions The application of α lipoic acid combined to epalrestat and methylcobalamin in the treatment of DPN can significantly improve the sensory and motor nerve conduction. Key words: Thioctic acid/AD; Cobamides/AD; Rhodanine/AA/AD; Diabetic neuropathies/DT