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.

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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
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article

A large-scale human toxicogenomics resource for drug-induced liver injury prediction

Nina Lapchyk, Volker Bergen, Hirit Beyene, Mahdi Zamanighomi et al.
2 citations
Nature Communications
Drug-Induced Hepatotoxicity and Protection
3.11
article

A large-scale human toxicogenomics resource for drug-induced liver injury prediction

Nina Lapchyk, Volker Bergen, Hirit Beyene, Mahdi Zamanighomi, Timothy Fulton, Casey C. Fowler, Sara Anderson, Matthew M. Goddeeris, Ornella Barrandon, Konstantia Kodella, Mauricio Cortes, Nick Plugis, Nicole Robichaud, Max Rogers-Grazado, Sreenath Srikrishnan
article en
2 citations

Abstract

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.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 16(1)
Somerville Hospital (US), Institute of Cell Biology (UA), Cell Medica (Switzerland) (CH)
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Drug-Induced Hepatotoxicity and Protection
3.11
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