ACE and diabetic kidney disease: Although advances have occurred in the clinical treatment of DKD, consisting of strict control of blood glucose and blood pressure, and the widely prescribed angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) and angiotensin II receptor antagonists (ARB), renal damage can progress (Umanath and Lewis, 2018) with interstitial fibrosis and glomerulosclerosis, and DKD remains the major cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (Ma et al., 2019).