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What Is Synergy? The Saariselkä Agreement Revisited

Jing Tang, Krister Wennerberg, Tero Aittokallio, What Is Synergy? The Saariselkä Agreement Revisited. Frontiers in Pharmacology 6(181), 1–5 , 2015.

http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2015.00181

Abstract:

Many biological or chemical agents when combined interact with each other and produce
a synergistic response that cannot be predicted based on the single agent responses
alone. However, depending on the postulated null hypothesis of non-interaction, one
may end up in different interpretations of synergy. Two popular reference models for
null hypothesis include the Bliss independence model and the Loewe additivity model,
each of which is formulated from different perspectives. During the last century, there
has been an intensive debate on the suitability of these synergy models, both of which
are theoretically justified and also in practice supported by different schools of scientists.
More than 20 years ago, there was a community effort to make a consensus on the
terminology one should use when claiming synergy. The agreement was formulated at
a conference held in Saariselkä, Finland in 1992, stating that one should use the terms
Bliss synergy or Loewe synergy to avoid ambiguity in the underlying models. We review
the theoretical relationships between these models and argue that one should combine
the advantages of both models to provide a more consistent definition of synergy and
antagonism.

BibTeX entry:

@ARTICLE{jTaWeAi15a,
  title = {What Is Synergy? The Saariselkä Agreement Revisited},
  author = {Tang, Jing and Wennerberg, Krister and Aittokallio, Tero},
  journal = {Frontiers in Pharmacology},
  volume = {6},
  number = {181},
  pages = {1–5 },
  year = {2015},
  keywords = {definition of synergy, drug combinations, Bliss and Loewe models, interaction barometer, consensus agreement},
}

Belongs to TUCS Research Unit(s): Biomathematics Research Unit (BIOMATH)

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