Abstract:To study the potential mechanism of action of Prunus cerasifera Ehrhart polyphenols （PEP） against diabetes mellitus type 2 （T2DM） based on network pharmacology and molecular docking techniques. The active ingredients of PEPs were collected by reviewing the literature；the target proteins of PEPs were obtained by searching PubChem，Sea，and SwissTargetPrediction databases，and the GeneCards and OMIM databases were used to retrieve the disease targets of T2DM. Protein-protein interaction （PPI） networks were constructed and topologically analyzed using the String database. Gene Ontology （GO） and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes（KEGG） enrichment analysis was performed using the DAVID database. Cytoscape 3.9.1 was used to construct the ′active component-core target-pathway′ network. The binding energy was calculated，and molecular docking was visualized using AutoDock Vina 1.1.2 and PyMol 2.5.4. The results showed that the 24 active components of PEPs and their corresponding 13 core targets，including HRAS and VEGFA，were screened.The GO analysis showed that the main biological processes involved included the positive regulation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase （MAPK） cascade，the positive regulation of protein phosphorylation，and the negative regulation of gene expression. The KEGG analysis showed that they were involved in the MAPK signaling pathway，advanced glycation end products-receptor for advanced glycation end products signaling pathway in diabetic complications，and hypoxia-inducible factor 1（HIF-1） signaling pathway. In summary，multiple active components in PEPs could exert anti-T2DM effects through multiple targets and multiple pathways.