A large-scale human toxicogenomics resource for drug-induced liver injury prediction
Drug-Induced Liver Injury (DILI) remains one of the most critical challenges in drug development, causing patient safety concerns, clinical trial failures and drug withdrawals. We introduce ToxPredictor, a toxicogenomics framework combining RNA-seq data from primary human hepatocytes with pharmacokinetic data to predict dose-resolved DILI risks and safety margins. At its core is DILImap, an RNA-seq library tailored for DILI research, comprising 300 compounds at multiple concentrations. ToxPredictor achieves 88% sensitivity at 100% specificity in blind validation, outperforming state-of-the-art methods. It flagged recent phase III clinical failures, including Evobrutinib, TAK-875, and BMS-986142, overlooked by animal studies. Beyond prediction, ToxPredictor provides mechanistic insights into hepatotoxic pathways, enabling early de-risking and actionable safety decisions. Unlike single-endpoint readouts-even from 3D models-transcriptomics offers a multi-dimensional system-level view of hepatocyte responses, capable of detecting diverse DILI mechanisms not captured by conventional assays. Scalable, actionable, and integrated into a broader AI/ML drug discovery platform, this work establishes toxicogenomics as a promising tool for developing safer therapeutics and addressing one of the most pressing challenges in toxicology.
Authors
- Nina Lapchyk
- Volker Bergen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2486-1473)
- Hirit Beyene
- Mahdi Zamanighomi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2503-5545)
- Timothy Fulton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0386-1821)
- Casey C. Fowler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6494-5650)
- Sara Anderson
- Matthew M. Goddeeris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6346-7220)
- Ornella Barrandon
- Konstantia Kodella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0966-5490)
- Mauricio Cortes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6887-4011)
- Nick Plugis
- Nicole Robichaud
- Max Rogers-Grazado
- Sreenath Srikrishnan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3930-0725)
Institutions
- Somerville Hospital (US)
- Institute of Cell Biology (UA)
- Cell Medica (Switzerland) (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-11-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65690-3
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Drug-Induced Hepatotoxicity and Protection
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.11