Prestwick Oncombo Library

A new tool to identify active drug combinations in oncology

Resistance to treatment is a prominent problem, notably in cancer therapy. Combination therapy has proven to be a valuable approach in different therapeutic areas, particularly in oncology, as combining drugs that have different mechanisms of action allows to overcome the challenge of drug resistance.

To address this question, a group of medicinal chemists and pharmacists have designed a new library with the goal to create pharmacological synergies, boost the efficiency of current anticancer treatments and potentially decrease toxicity.

The Prestwick Oncombo Library aims to identify synergistic drug combinations based on the association of 18 anticancer drugs and 160 potentiating drugs.

Oncombo Library: A Novel and unique library of approved drug combinations

  • Anticancer drugs carefully chosen to cover a maximum of therapeutic targets (including kinases, dihydrofolate reductase, topoisomerases…) and of chemical space
  • Potentiating drugs acting on metabolic, hormonal, immune pathways that can impair mechanisms controlling the cancer cell cycle and/or disrupt the tumoral microenvironment
  • Combinations that may induce destabilization of the tumor survival process and enhance anticancer effect, therefore being
    • A valuable tool to discover potent and promising combinatorial therapies
    • A new approach to uncover new therapeutic effects

Oncombo Library: How is it provided?

The Prestwick Oncombo Library includes 18 anticancer drugs, 160 potentiating drugs and 2880 drug combinations, accounting for 3058 products in total, all formatted into 41 microplates (96 well-plating) or 11 microplates (384 well-plating)

  • Pre-dissolved at 5 mM in DMSO, ready for screening, in 96 or 384 well plates or plates of your choice (volume 25µL)
  • Stability in DMSO: 5 years at -20°C
  • Each compound is pure at least at 90 %
  • Provided with a highly annotated database
  • Resupply of any hit-compound is guaranteed up to 100 mg

Some background on combination therapy in cancer:

  • Chauvin C, Leruste A, Tauziede-Espariat A, et al. High-Throughput Drug Screening Identifies Pazopanib and Clofilium Tosylate as Promising Treatments for Malignant Rhabdoid Tumors. Cell Rep. 2017;21(7):1737-1745. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2017.10.076
  • Bayat Mokhtari R, Homayouni TS, Baluch N, et al. Combination therapy in combating cancer. Oncotarget. 2017;8(23):38022-38043. doi:10.18632/oncotarget.16723
  • Ariey-Bonnet J, Berges R, Montero MP, et al. Combination drug screen targeting glioblastoma core vulnerabilities reveals pharmacological synergisms. EBioMedicine. 2023;95:104752. doi:10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104752

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