Editorial: Use of quantitative systems pharmacology pipelines to bridge in vitro and in vivo results in drug discovery
Federico Reali, Attila Csikász‐Nagy, Gianluca Selvaggio · Frontiers in Systems Biology · 2023
Editorial on the Research Topic Use of quantitative systems pharmacology pipelines to bridge in vitro and in vivo results in drug discoveryThe drug development process is notoriously costly and time-consuming, with a high attrition rate of drug candidates due to unforeseen toxicities or lack of efficacy.Over the past decades, the progressive introduction of quantitative approaches in the modern drug discovery and development process helped mitigate the attrition risks, improving the outcome across different therapeutic areas.However, the design process and consequently the success rate still have room for improvements (Waring et al., 2015;Smietana et al., 2016).Quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) has emerged as a promising approach to combine mathematical modeling, experimental data, and biological knowledge to simulate and predict the behavior of drugs within the context of a living organism by integrating systems biology and pharmacometrics approaches (Sorger et al., 2011).QSP can address the challenges faced by pharmaceutical industries from a holistic point of view by incorporating multi-level descriptions of biological phenomena and drug interactions as reviewed by Verma et al. in this Research Topic. The authors present three case studies that illustrate how QSP modeling can help answer specific questions and support decision-making in early drug development. The case studies are an agent-based model of chemotherapy-induced diarrhea and its prediction from organoid experiments; a hybrid model of myocardial infarction and human ventricular progenitor cell therapy; and a parsimonious model of immuno-oncology and the interplay of tumor inhibition, regulatory T cells, and effector T cells. Verma et al. also discuss some of the barriers and facilitators for the successful application and adoption of QSP modeling in the pharmaceutical industry and regulatory agencies.QSP can bridge the gap between systems biology and pharmacology at different phases of drug discovery as Szalai and Veres and Sommariva et al. showcase in this Research Topic.QSP methods and models can help in identifying new drug targets and determining the