Dual-Logistic Analysis of Time- and Concentration-Dependent Phenotypic Efficacy Evaluation Integrating Drug Targets Information

Abstract Tumor heterogeneity highlights the necessity of precision cancer medicine, making the evaluation and screening of anticancer drugs a core challenge in cancer therapy. However, current cell-based efficacy assessment methods struggle to quantify the holistic impact of drugs on cellular behavior through specific target engagement. Here, we proposed a novel approach (DL-TCP-FRET) that integrates phenotypic and target-related evaluations: the logistic fitting analysis is performed on time- and concentration-dependent cellular phenotypic characteristics to construct a phenotypic score (P), while a target score (T) is established based on the FRET efficiency between target proteins. These two scores were then further combined to generate a unified drug efficacy score (PT). Validation in A549 cells demonstrated that our method can reliably distinguish EGFR-TKIs from non-targeted drugs. DL-TCP-FRET simplifies the experimental workflow of drug efficacy evaluation and improves the accuracy of targeted drug identification, providing a novel strategy for advancing precision cancer therapy. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.