Exploration of New Treatment Methods by Using Data Science

Abstract

Although the primary effects of most drugs have been well verified, their secondary effects remain less understood. Therefore, concomitant medications used to prevent side effects may attenuate the efficacy of the primary therapeutic agent. In this study, we investigated whether concomitant medications that maximize therapeutic efficacy can be used to reduce the effectiveness of the main therapeutic agent. In particular, we focused on anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) drugs, which are essential for cancer treatment. We demonstrated that the therapeutic outcome of anti-VEGF drugs can be changed by the concomitant use of gastric acid secretion inhibitors and identified a potential involvement of estrogen receptors in the mechanism underlying this interaction. Therefore, we are examining the mechanism in detail and conducting further studies, including the exploration of drugs that may exert stimulatory or inhibitory effects on estrogen receptors as a secondary action, through omics data analysis. This approach can be applied to a wide variety of drugs and is expected to improve therapeutic outcomes of various drug treatments.