Objective To explore medication rules of insect-containing prescriptions in treatment of diabetic nephropathy (DN).

Methods Insect-containing prescriptions for treating DN were collected from China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI), Weipu database(VIP) and Wanfang database in recent ten years were collected, and analysis in frequency, nature, taste and channel tropism, association rules, complex network visualization, system clustering and factor analysis was performed for the Chinese medicinal drugs.

Results A total of 323 prescriptions containing insect drugs for treating DN were screened, involving 273 kinds of traditional Chinese medicine, of which 34 were insect drugs. The high frequency insect drugs were Shuizhi, Dilong, Jiangcan, Chantui, Muli, etc, and mostly of them were combined with drugs with functions of tonifying deficiency, activating blood and resolving stasis, inducing astringency as well as clearing heat and cooling blood, etc. Chinese medicines in prescriptions were bland natured and sweet flavored, mainly entering lung, spleen and kidney meridians, or bitter flavored and cold natured, entering liver meridian. The results of association rule analysis obtained 8 pairs of association combinations, system clustering analysis obtained 7 cluster combinations, factor analysis extracted 13 common factors.

Conclusion In the treatment of DN, Shuizhi, Dilong, Jiangcan and other insect drugs are commonly used Chinese medicinal medicine, and are often used with drugs with functions of tonifying kidney and nourishing Yin, invigorating spleen and harmonizing middle energizer, invigorating blood and cooling blood. Treatment based on syndrome differentiation and attack and supplement at the same time are performed.