SiCoDEA: A Simple, Fast and Complete App for Analyzing the Effect of Individual Drugs and Their Combinations

Biomolecules. 2022 Jun 28;12(7):904. doi: 10.3390/biom12070904.

Abstract

The administration of combinations of drugs is a method widely used in the treatment of different pathologies as it can lead to an increase in the therapeutic effect and a reduction in the dose compared to the administration of single drugs. For these reasons, it is of interest to study combinations of drugs and to determine whether a specific combination has a synergistic, antagonistic or additive effect. Various mathematical models have been developed, which use different methods to evaluate the synergy of a combination of drugs. We have developed an open access and easy to use app that allows different models to be explored and the most fitting to be chosen for the specific experimental data: SiCoDEA (Single and Combined Drug Effect Analysis). Despite the existence of other tools for drug combination analysis, SiCoDEA remains the most complete and flexible since it offers options such as outlier removal or the ability to choose between different models for analysis. SiCoDEA is an easy to use tool for analyzing drug combination data and to have a view of the various steps and offer different results based on the model chosen.

Keywords: IC50; additive; antagonist; automatic report; bioinformatics; combination index; drug screenings; genomics; isobologram; synergic.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Drug Combinations
  • Drug Synergism
  • Mobile Applications*
  • Pharmaceutical Preparations

Substances

  • Drug Combinations
  • Pharmaceutical Preparations

Grants and funding

This work has been supported by the European Research Council (ERC) Cons Grant 2016 n. 725725 and Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC)-IG 2018 n. 21419 (both to Maria Paola Martelli), ELIXIR-IIB (ELIX4_spinozzi) and CINECA (HP10CZ1LLU) to Giulio Spinozzi for all bioinformatic activities, in particular the intensive analyses of all simulations and for testing the other tools.