Endometriosis is a common gynecological disease and causes severe chronic
pelvic pain and
infertility. Growing evidence showed that
traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) plays an active role in the treatment of
endometriosis. ELeng
Capsule (ELC) is a Chinese medicine formula used for the treatment of
endometriosis for several years. However, the mechanisms of ELC have not been fully characterized. In this study, network pharmacology and
mRNA transcriptome analysis were used to study various therapeutic targets in ELC. As a result, 40 compounds are identified, and 75 targets overlapped with
endometriosis-related
proteins. The mechanism of ELC for the treatment of
endometriosis is based on the function modules of inducing apoptosis, inhibiting angiogenesis, and regulating immunity mainly through signaling molecules and interaction (neuroactive
ligand-receptor interaction), immune system-associated pathways (
toll-like receptor signaling pathway),
vascular endothelial growth factor (
VEGF) signaling, and MAPK signaling pathway based on network pharmacology. In addition, based on RNA-sequence analysis, we found that the mechanism of ELC was predominantly associated with the regulation of the function modules of actin and cytoskeleton, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), focal adhesion, and immunity-associated pathways. In conclusion, ELC exerted beneficial effects on
endometriosis, and the potential mechanism could be realized through functional modules, such as inducing apoptosis and regulating angiogenesis, cytoskeleton, and EMT. This work not only provides insights into the therapeutic mechanism of TCM for treating
endometriosis but also offers an efficient way for
drug discovery and development from herbal medicine.