OBJECTIVE: To probe into the potential targets and mechanism of tripterygium hypoglaucum in the treatment of membranous nephropathy based on network pharmacology. METHODS: Effective components and targets of tripterygium hypoglaucum were screened by using BATMAN-TCM. Related targets of membranous nephropathy were identified by GeneCards

Human Mendelian Genetic Comprehensive database

therapeutic target database

DrugBank and GAD. Cytoscape software was used to analyze the correlation between the target and active components of tripterygium hypoglaucum in the treatment of membranous nephropathy. Biological function and mechanism of effective target of tripterygium hypoglaucum for membranous nephropathy were analyzed by DAVID database. RESULTS: According to the principles of oral availability and drug similarity

15 active components of tripterygium hypoglaucum were screened out

and 78 active targets were screened out

and 3 191 targets for MN were extracted from databases. Through gene enrichment analysis

the biological function of the targets of tripterygium hypoglaucum intervention in membranous nephropathy were obtained

such as steroid binding

nuclear receptor activity and direct ligand-regulated specific DNA sequence binding. Through pathway enrichment analysis of Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes

the signal pathway of membranous nephropathy treatment by tripterygium hypoglaucum was screened out

such as target rapamycin signaling pathway. CONCLUSIONS: The treatment of membranous nephropathy by tripterygium hypoglaucum mainly involves multiple biological properties such as steroid binding properties and intervention with multiple signaling pathways such as rapamycin target protein signaling pathway.