An interpretable artificial intelligence framework for designing synthetic lethality-based anti-cancer combination therapies.

Introduction: Synthetic lethality (SL) provides an opportunity to leverage different genetic interactions when designing synergistic combination therapies. To further explore SL-based combination therapies for cancer treatment, it is important to identify and mechanistically characterize more SL interactions. Artificial intelligence (AI) methods have recently been proposed for SL prediction, but the results of these models are often not interpretable such that deriving the underlying mechanism can be challenging.

Objectives: This study aims to develop an interpretable AI framework for SL prediction and subsequently utilize it to design SL-based synergistic combination therapies.

Methods: We propose a knowledge and data dual-driven AI framework for SL prediction (KDDSL). Specifically, we use gene knowledge related to the SL mechanism to guide the construction of the model and develop a method to identify the most relevant gene knowledge for the predicted results.

Results: Experimental and literature-based validation confirmed a good balance between predictive and interpretable ability when using KDDSL. Moreover, we demonstrated that KDDSL could help to discover promising drug combinations and clarify associated biological processes, such as the combination of MDM2 and CDK9 inhibitors, which exhibited significant anti-cancer effects in vitro and in vivo.

Conclusion: These data underscore the potential of KDDSL to guide SL-based combination therapy design. There is a need for biomedicine-focused AI strategies to combine rational biological knowledge with developed models.