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DRUG DISCOVERY

A new vision of drug discovery and development D. Lansing Taylor Director, University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute and Allegheny Foundation Professor of Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

The pharmaceutical industry has experienced a decade of turbulence driven by the ‘patent cliff’ as major revenue generators are lost to generic status, coupled to the absence of a sustainable pipeline of drug candidates in development that have 1,2 a good chance of being approved and launched . It is generally agreed that the lowest hanging drug discovery ‘fruit’ has been harvested and the industry is addressing diseases that are more complex. The current one target, one drug discovery and development paradigm continues to exhibit more than 90 per cent attrition mainly due to the lack of success in translating preclinical efficacy and 1 safety data into successful human trials . It has also become clear that efficient drug discovery and development requires a deeper understanding of the complexity 3 of human biology early in the process . The high attrition rates increase the costs and with the science indicating that precision therapeutics will replace the 4 blockbuster model , the challenge of drug discovery and development is even greater. The traditional business model of pharmaceutical companies working in silos is no longer sustainable.

focused efforts in order to gain the advantage of collaboration. All potential partners must be willing to negotiate terms of agreements that benefit all partners. In many cases, this will require modifications of institutional policies created in a very different era. In a new environment of collaboration, each potential partner must also identify and optimise the strengths of their organisation to make it a good complementary fit for potential partners. Academic medical centres are in a great position to take part in the collaborative business model of drug discovery and development, clinical trials and diagnostics, if they are willing to negotiate mutually beneficial terms, including ownership / licensing of intellectual property

A new vision of strategic collaborations

nologies and basic knowledge. Life sciences

However, there is a new vision where strategic

and diagnostic companies have recognised

The importance of adopting the collabor-

collaborations between pharmaceutical

the emergence of personalised or precision

ative business model to increase the potential

companies, government agencies, venture

medicine and have begun commercialising

for innovation is reflected in the fact that the

capital-backed biotechnology companies and

the ‘omics’ platforms required for realising

dominant paradigm in drug discovery for

academic medical centres will create a new

personalised (precision) medicine. There is also a

the last 25 years has been the target-centric

breadth of approaches that have a good chance

heightened focus on coupling diagnostic /

model or the one gene, one target, one New

of increasing the innovation that has been

prognostic tests with new therapeutics to

Chemical Entity (NCE) approach. Most

stagnant in recent years5-8. Government funding

identify the patient sub-populations that will

pharmaceutical companies embraced this

agencies are increasing the emphasis on

benefit from a treatment. This evolution of the

philosophy due to the expectation of a near-

translational research, even in a period of

pharmaceutical industry offers opportunities

term impact of the human genome project,

funding pressures. Academic medical centres

and challenges to the potential partners.

technological advances in screening auto -

arising from the collaboration.

are also increasing their efforts in translational

It is necessary to harness the expertise of the

mation, creation of large chemical libraries,

science, while continuing to create new tech-

collaborating partners and to be innovative in

increases in the number of solutions to protein

European Pharmaceutical Review Volume 17 | Issue 6 | 2012

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DRUG DISCOVERY structures and the creation of in silico software tools. A major challenge has been the slow and incomplete determination of the relationship between the disease genotype and the phenotype. It is now clear that putting most of the intellectual and experimental ‘eggs’ in this one basket has not produced the predicted productivity1.

A road to higher innovation High Throughput Screening (HTS) had become the standard in target-centric discovery programs by the early 1990s, but in the late 1990s, High Content Screening (HCS) was introduced as an alternative or at least a complement to HTS9,10. The concept of HCS was to fully automate fluorescence microscopic analysis of cells and later small experimental organisms, allowing the creation of deeper

Blending, Granulation, Drying …

biological knowledge based on the physiological disease relevance to better guide decisions on the progression of compounds. HCS offered the opportunity to initiate discovery based on a disease phenotype and not a specific molecular target. However, most discovery programs in the early days used HCS only in secondary assays and to follow a specific molecular target activity, since the speed of reading primary assays using HTS was viewed as paramount. However, given the late-stage failure of drug candidates, especially in phase II clinical trials1, the speed of reading a plate in discovery is insignificant compared to the time to make good decisions on progressing candidates based on the necessary biological and chemical knowledge11. Importantly, it has been demonstrated that phenotypic discovery was the most successful approach for first-in-class small molecule drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 1999 and 200812,13. Combining the application of multiplexed HCS to more disease relevant (and more complex) biological screening models such as mixed cell cultures, 3D human tissue engineered models of organs and small experimental organisms such as yeast, C. elegans, and zebrafish should have a major impact in the early discovery process

14,15

. Especially promising for the future is the potential of

human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients with a range of genomic backgrounds to serve as the source for disease relevant human tissue models to be used in discovery and early

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proper validation. It will also be critical to expand the use of computational chemistry and biology together with systems biology, in parallel with the improvement of the experimental systems used in 17-19

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integrating the available ‘omics’ information requires computational

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phenotypic discovery

methods to reduce the data to knowledge.

A critical role for quantitative systems pharmacology Quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) is an emerging field that integrates experimentation, including screening data, with computational tools to define the actions of drugs across multiple scales of biological complexity from molecules to cells, tissues, organs and organisms for a ‘systems’ level perspective20-22. QSP is the merger of pharmacology, especially pharmacokinetics (PK) and

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pharmacodynamics (PD) with the field of systems biology 23. You can see us at:


IFPAC - January 2013, Baltimore


DRUG DISCOVERY extended to define the complex processes of living systems 23,27. The Output from this approach is expected to yield advanced functional knowledge on the pathways, including potential feedback loops between pathways, as well as physiological processes interrogated experimentally and compu tationally. Additionally, the output will identify any ‘emergent properties’ or properties of the system not predicted from investigating the components, such as heterogeneity of system responses22. Another important output should be improved and predictive drug efficacy and safety as a ‘knowledgebase’ of information as QSP is applied. The major output should be novel drugs, including drug combinations working on connected pathways 28. There will be ‘feedback loops’ between input, Figure 1 QSP in drug discovery and development in the UPDDI begins with Inputs of ‘omics’ data, the development of inferred pathways involved in the disease and a phenotypic disease model for the screen. The application of QSP involves the phenotypic discovery approach using HCS and computational and systems biology, as well as mathematical modeling. The outputs of QSP include functional knowledge including any emergent properties, improved drug efficacy and safety and most importantly, novel drugs

QSP and output. For example, the QSP results will help build new hypotheses in regards to pathways and MOA that could feedback to input to perform new assays. Likewise, the outputs (e.g. drugs, combination therapies

24,25

The promise of QSP also includes the ability

knowledge, including polypharmacology

.

or polypharmacological strategies) would also

to understand the interaction of drugs in indi-

Furthermore, a number of machine learning

be tested against HCS assays and newly

vidual patients.

approaches have the potential to reduce the

collected omics data (e.g. from patients

We view QSP as involving Inputs, as well as

amount of screening measurements required26.

that have received treatment). QSP will also

the application of the elements of experi -

Mathematical models of refined pathways, as

help to understand side effects, or mechanisms

mentation and computational methods of QSP

well as PK and PD, are developed and then

of drug resistance.

and finally Outputs that result from the approach (Figure 1). The Input (diseaseassociated genotypes and phenotypes) of the QSP approach includes all of the available ‘omics’ generated on the disease model systems and patient samples including multiplexed fluorescence-based pathology. Disease relevant

‘‘It is necessary to harness the expertise of the collaborating partners and to be innovative in focused efforts in order to gain the advantage of collaboration’’ pathways are inferred from the ‘omics’ data to guide the development of the optimal phenotypic screen. The best possible phenotypic disease model is then validated as a High Content Screen (HCS) assay. The disease model/assay can range from multiplexed cells to engineered human tissue to experimental organisms. QSP integrates the data from the phenotypic discovery approach (see Figure 3, page 23) and applies a range of computational chemistry, computational biology and systems biology software tools to reduce the large screening/experimental data sets to functional

Figure 2 Starting discovery campaigns with computational chemistry and biology allows the integration of existing knowledge of the targeted pathway(s) and the identification of predicted binding of existing drugs to pathway components that could identify useful ‘probes’ of pathway modulations, as well as starting points for rational drug design. Some of the databases used in target prediction include: STITCH – chemical-protein interactions, http://stitch.embl.de/ . DrugBank – approved/experimental drugs with target information from literature, http://www.drugbank.ca/ ,SIDER – drug side effects database, http://sideeffects.embl.de/ , ChEMBL – chemicalprotein interactions from bioassays/literature, https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/ , Target Hunter-identify possible targets of small molecules, http://www.cbligand.org/targethunter, and MDDR – chemical bioactivity database http://accelrys.com/products/databases/bioactivity/mddr.html


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DRUG DISCOVERY The University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute (UPDDI) as an example

and development process starting with the

campaign is performed identifying ‘hits’ and lead

application of phenotypic screening using

generation and lead optimisation is subse -

HCS11,14,15. Figure 3 shows the steps in performing

quently performed. An optimally designed HCS

The University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery

a phenotypic screen. In phenotypic drug

assay can be used to guide the structure activity

Institute (UPDDI) has embraced a two-fold

discovery, the detailed, basic and clinical science

relationship (SAR) in lead optimisation15,32,33.

strategy in creating an environment for the new

is a critical component, as in target-centric

In fact, the FDA does not require molecular

vision of drug discovery and development

discovery. However, a functional, disease

target identification for approval13. Extensive

(www.upddi.pitt.edu): Collaboration – through integrated activities across internal departments, centres and institutes, along with collaborations with other academic centres, government agencies and commercial partners; and Innovation – by developing and practicing new approaches and technologies to complement the present paradigm of discovery. Technologically, the UPDDI has key strengths in HCS and phenotypic discovery, chemistry / medicinal chemistry and molecular biophysics applied to target-centric discovery and is investing heavily in the implementation of QSP. The focus of this discussion is on QSP coupled to phenotypic discovery, but the power of molecular biophysics in target-centric programs is evident when applied to the right target and can be performed subsequent to an initial phenotypic discovery step when a target is identified29. The University of Pittsburgh has the

Figure 3 Phenotypic drug discovery and development using HCS is a major commitment of the UPDDI. The implementation of QSP involves the best experimental methods, including HCS screening data, coupled with computational chemistry and biology, as well as systems biology. Although not required by the FDA, the identification of the molecular target(s) is investigated by chemical proteomics. The goal is to integrate and to analyse data across the complete discovery-development continuum from early discovery to clinical data

depth and breadth to support a major effort data mining on 890 approved drugs demon-

in drug discovery and development and in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), the ability to translate basic research to clinical trials and clinical practice. Ready access to clinician scientists, patients and patient samples is crucial to the success of this new paradigm.

‘‘The phenotypic drug discoverydevelopment approach allows the application of QSP from early discovery on a range of scales of biological complexity from molecules to mammalian models to human patient cohorts’’

strated that on average, each of the analysed drugs interact with six known molecular targets34. This latter fact gives promise to the drug repurposing efforts now underway35. However, when optimised leads are identified, it is important to apply chemical proteomics approaches to try to identify

A major advance in computational chemistry and computational biology in recent

relevant phenotype is selected, validated

potential molecular target(s)36,37. Identification

years has been the harnessing of genomics and

and profiled by HCS rather than selecting and

of molecular target(s) allows the application of

proteomics databases and sophisticated

validating a single molecular target. This

mechanism of action (MOA) studies that might

algorithms to infer pathways responsible for cell

broadens the potential molecular targets that

involve multiple molecular targets across

functions as a starting point for defining the

can be modulated by compounds and puts the

multiple pathways. Furthermore, one or a

actual pathways (Figure 2, page 22). It is also

initial focus on functions and pathways. This is

combination of identified molecular targets

now possible to harness drug and target protein

very different from applying hypothesis driven

could be useful as biomarkers. In vitro early

databases to predict drug interactions with

research to follow a single molecular target, but

safety assessment can also be performed using

specific target proteins. Positive ‘hits’ from the

allows an unbiased, physiological profile to

HCS at this stage to help guide the prioritisation

in silico profiling can be used to identify useful

define the cellular functions and pathways

of leads38,39. The pre-clinical and clinical stages

‘chemical probes’ of pathways and cellular

directly involved in the disease. Optimally, one

are the same functionally, as with the target-

functions, as well as a starting point to design

or more biomarkers can be identified in the

centric approach, but with the addition of

a phenotypic screening strategy for drug

process, quantified in the HCS assay and carried

computational and systems biology that

discovery and/or as a reference point for

through the whole discovery-development

permits quantification and modelling of

pursuing a molecular biophysics / target-centric

process. A critical step is the selection of

the data. The phenotypic drug discovery-

compound libraries based on both diversity and

development approach allows the application

novelty. In addition, exploring existing drugs for

of QSP from early discovery on a range of

Critical role of HCS in QSP

repurposing and natural products for added

scales of biological complexity from molecules

The UPDDI is applying QSP in the drug discovery

diversity has great promise. The screening

to mammalian models to human patient

30,31

approach to drug discovery

.

European Pharmaceutical Review www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview.com

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Volume 17 | Issue 6 | 2012


DRUG DISCOVERY cohorts. The phenotypic approach can be

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Acknowledgements I would like to thank my colleagues for valuable discussions on how to harness the new vision of drug discovery and development including Mark Schurdak, Bert Gough, Andy Stern, Andreas Vogt, Dutch Boltz, Ivet Bahar, Jeremy Berg, Ahmet Bakan, Tim Lezon and Bob Murphy.

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