Cyto-Safe: A Machine Learning Tool for Early Identification of Cytotoxic Compounds in Drug Discovery

Cytotoxicity is essential in drug discovery, enabling early evaluation of toxic compounds during screenings to minimize toxicological risks. <i>In vitro</i> assays support high-throughput screening, allowing for efficient detection of toxic substances while considerably reducing the need for animal testing. Additionally, AI-based Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (AI-QSAR) models enhance early stage predictions by assessing the cytotoxic potential of molecular structures, which helps prioritize low-risk compounds for further validation. We present a freely accessible web application designed for identifying potential cytotoxic compounds utilizing QSAR models. This application utilizes machine learning techniques and is built on a data set of approximately 90,000 compounds, evaluated against two cell lines, 3T3 and HEK 293. Users can interact with the app by inputting a SMILES representation, uploading CSV or SDF files, or sketching molecules. The output includes a binary prediction for each cell line, a confidence percentage, and an explainable AI (XAI) analysis. Cyto-Safe web-app version 1.0 is available at http://insightai.labmol.com.br/.