Modelling approach could optimise drug combination choice

One challenge in predicting the efficacy of drug combinations is the vast number of potential multiples of drugs and dosages.

In a paper published in IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica
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(2017;4(1):41-48), researchers tested a method called polynomial modelling to simulate complex drug-dose effects.

By comparing different models, they found that they could accurately predict the dose-effect function of combinations involving more than six drugs.

The team showed that the model could be applied to exploring the optimal combination of eight chemotherapeutic drugs on three lung cancer cell lines, which they say could be used to target multiple tumour cell types in the same patient.

The team says the results could inform the use of algorithms to optimise virtually any kind of drug combination and to tailor treatment to individual patients.