SynToxProfiler: An interactive analysis of drug combination synergy, toxicity and efficacy

PLoS Comput Biol. 2020 Feb 3;16(2):e1007604. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007604. eCollection 2020 Feb.

Abstract

Drug combinations are becoming a standard treatment of many complex diseases due to their capability to overcome resistance to monotherapy. In the current preclinical drug combination screening, the top combinations for further study are often selected based on synergy alone, without considering the combination efficacy and toxicity effects, even though these are critical determinants for the clinical success of a therapy. To promote the prioritization of drug combinations based on integrated analysis of synergy, efficacy and toxicity profiles, we implemented a web-based open-source tool, SynToxProfiler (Synergy-Toxicity-Profiler). When applied to 20 anti-cancer drug combinations tested both in healthy control and T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL) patient cells, as well as to 77 anti-viral drug pairs tested in Huh7 liver cell line with and without Ebola virus infection, SynToxProfiler prioritized as top hits those synergistic drug pairs that showed higher selective efficacy (difference between efficacy and toxicity), which offers an improved likelihood for clinical success.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents / administration & dosage*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / toxicity*
  • Antiviral Agents / administration & dosage*
  • Antiviral Agents / toxicity*
  • Drug Combinations*
  • Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / drug therapy
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays
  • Humans
  • Neoplasms / drug therapy

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Antiviral Agents
  • Drug Combinations

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Academy of Finland (grants 292611, 279163, 295504, 310507, 326238), European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (ERA PerMed JAKSTAT-TARGET), the Cancer Society of Finland (TA) and the Sigrid Jusélius Foundation (TA). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.