Meta-Analysis of Large-Scale Toxicogenomic Data Finds Neuronal Regeneration Related Protein and Cathepsin D to Be Novel Biomarkers of Drug-Induced Toxicity

PLoS One. 2015 Sep 3;10(9):e0136698. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136698. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Undesirable toxicity is one of the main reasons for withdrawing drugs from the market or eliminating them as candidates in clinical trials. Although numerous studies have attempted to identify biomarkers capable of predicting pharmacotoxicity, few have attempted to discover robust biomarkers that are coherent across various species and experimental settings. To identify such biomarkers, we conducted meta-analyses of massive gene expression profiles for 6,567 in vivo rat samples and 453 compounds. After applying rigorous feature reduction procedures, our analyses identified 18 genes to be related with toxicity upon comparisons of untreated versus treated and innocuous versus toxic specimens of kidney, liver and heart tissue. We then independently validated these genes in human cell lines. In doing so, we found several of these genes to be coherently regulated in both in vivo rat specimens and in human cell lines. Specifically, mRNA expression of neuronal regeneration-related protein was robustly down-regulated in both liver and kidney cells, while mRNA expression of cathepsin D was commonly up-regulated in liver cells after exposure to toxic concentrations of chemical compounds. Use of these novel toxicity biomarkers may enhance the efficiency of screening for safe lead compounds in early-phase drug development prior to animal testing.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biomarkers / analysis*
  • Cathepsin D / analysis*
  • Cell Line
  • Gene Expression
  • Humans
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / analysis*
  • Oncogene Proteins / analysis*
  • Toxicogenetics*

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • NREP protein, human
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • Oncogene Proteins
  • Cathepsin D

Grants and funding

Funding was received from the Korea Health Technology R&D project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea grant number: HI14C1323; a faculty research grant from Yonsei University College of Medicine for 2014 grant number: 6-2014-0066; and the the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology grant number: 2012R1A1A3019523, 2010-0022887.