Mechanism of action of for treatment of idiopathic membranous nephropathy based on network pharmacology.

BACKGROUND

Although thunder god vine () has been widely used for treatment of idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN), the pharmacological mechanisms underlying its effects are still unclear. This study investigated potential therapeutic targets and the pharmacological mechanism of for the treatment of IMN based on network pharmacology.

METHODS

Active components of were obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform. IMN-associated target genes were collected from the GeneCards, DisGeNET, and OMIM databases. VENNY 2.1 was used to identify the overlapping genes between active compounds of and IMN target genes. The STRING database and Cytoscape 3.7.2 software were used to analyze interactions among overlapping genes. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analyses of the targets were performed using Rx64 4.0.2 software, colorspace, stringi, DOSE, clusterProfiler, and enrichplot packages.

RESULTS

A total of 153 compound-related genes and 1485 IMN-related genes were obtained, and 45 core genes that overlapped between both categories were identified. The protein-protein interaction network and MCODE results indicated that the targets TP53, MAPK8, MAPK14, STAT3, IFNG, ICAM1, IL4, TGFB1, PPARG, and MMP1 play important roles in the treatment of on IMN. Enrichment analysis showed that the main pathways of targets were the AGE signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, and Toll-like receptor signaling pathway.

CONCLUSION

This study revealed potential multi-component and multi-target mechanisms of for the treatment of IMN based on network pharmacological, and provided a scientific basis for further experimental studies.