The advances of calcium oxalate calculi associated drugs and targets

Kidney stones constitute a disease of the urinary system of high incidence that has only a few available stone dissolving drugs as treatment options. The mechanism of calcium oxalate stone formation is still largely unclear. Various aspects and theories for initiation and formation of the renal stones have been suggested, and the complex multistep formation process of the kidney stones includes supersaturation, nucleation, growth and aggregation of a crystal, and crystal retention in cells after adhesion. During the initial stage of crystal formation, high concentrations of oxalate exposure may damage the renal tubular cells and cause oxidative stress after which the cells may be attached to the crystal thus supporting the oxalate-induced injury as the driving factor of crystal precipitation and cellular adhesion. However, at present, although various drugs targeting kidney stones have been proposed and evaluated both in vitro and in vivo, clinical drugs for stone dissolution have rarely been explored. Moreover, numerous advances in renal calcium oxalate stone associated target and drugs warrant their summarization until now, which could be further discussed and may provide potential ideas or options for exploration of renal calcium oxalate stone treatment targets and drugs.