Searching Synergistic Dose Combinations for Anticancer Drugs

• Main Authors: Zuojing Yin, Zeliang Deng, Wenyan Zhao, Zhiwei Cao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-05-01
• Series: Frontiers in Pharmacology
• Subjects: synergistic combination; optimized dose combination; computational model; feedback system control scheme; regression model
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphar.2018.00535/full

Recent development has enabled synergistic drugs in treating a wide range of cancers. Being highly context-dependent, however, identification of successful ones often requires screening of combinational dose on different testing platforms in order to gain the best anticancer effects. To facilitate the development of effective computational models, we reviewed the latest strategy in searching optimal dose combination from three perspectives: (1) mainly experimental-based approach; (2) Computational-guided experimental approach; and (3) mainly computational-based approach. In addition to the introduction of each strategy, critical discussion of their advantages and disadvantages were also included, with a strong focus on the current applications and future improvements.