Efficient discovery of anti-inflammatory small molecule combinations using evolutionary computing

The control of biochemical fluxes is distributed and to perturb complex intracellular networks effectively it is often necessary to modulate several steps simultaneously. However, the number of possible permutations leads to a combinatorial explosion in the number of experiments that would have to be performed in a complete analysis. We used a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (EA) to optimize reagent combinations from a dynamic chemical library of 33 compounds with established or predicted targets in the regulatory network controlling IL-1β expression. The EA converged on excellent solutions within 11 generations during which we studied just 550 combinations out of the potential search space of ~ 9 billion. The top five reagents with the greatest contribution to combinatorial effects throughout the EA were then optimized pairwise. A p38 MAPK inhibitor with either an inhibitor of IκB kinase or a chelator of poorly liganded iron yielded synergistic inhibition of macrophage IL-1β expression. Evolutionary searches provide a powerful and general approach to the discovery of novel combinations of pharmacological agents with potentially greater therapeutic indices than those of single drugs.