ReviewThe Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics2012
Revisiting the isobole and related quantitative methods for assessing drug synergism.
Review in The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers.
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Who cites it
66 citing papers in PubMed, 145 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Cannabinoid CB1 receptor and mu-opioid receptor interaction: new insights from conditional knockout mice.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Treatment of neuropathic pain in diabetic rats with synergistic combinations of nortriptyline + tramadol and nortriptyline + ibuprofen.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Neuropathic Pain and Related Depression in Mice: The Effect of a Terpene and a Minor Cannabinoid in Combination.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Cannabidiol and Beta-Caryophyllene: Chronic inflammatory pain.Pharmacological research · 2025Article
- Article
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- Isobolographic Analysis of the Cytoprotective Effect of Dapsone and Cannabidiol Alone or Combination upon Oxygen-Glucose Deprivation/Reoxygenation Model in SH-SY5Y Cells.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Investigation of Herb-Drug Interactions betweenAdvances in pharmacological and pharmaceutical sciences · 2024Article
- Behavioral effects of triazolam and pregnanolone combinations: reinforcing and sedative-motor effects in female rhesus monkeys.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Cannabidiol and Beta-Caryophyllene in Combination: A Therapeutic Functional Interaction.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Activation of Peripheral Cannabinoid Receptors Synergizes the Effect of Systemic Ibuprofen in a Pain Model in Rat.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Antagonistic Pharmacological Interaction between Sirtuin Inhibitor Cambinol and Paclitaxel in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cell Lines: An Isobolographic Analysis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Searching for plant-derived antivirals against dengue virus and Zika virus.Virology journal · 2022Article
- Evaluation of synergism in drug combinations and reference models for future orientations in oncology.Current research in pharmacology and drug discovery · 2022Review
- The kappa-opioid receptor agonist, triazole 1.1, reduces oxycodone self-administration and enhances oxycodone-induced thermal antinociception in male rats.Psychopharmacology · 2021Article
- Repurposing hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channels as a novel therapy for breast cancer.Clinical and translational medicine · 2021Article
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The isobole is well established and commonly used in the quantitative study of agonist drug combinations. This article reviews the isobole, its derivation from the concept of dose equivalence, and its usefulness in providing the predicted effect of an agonist drug combination, a topic not discussed in pharmacology textbooks. This review addresses that topic and also shows that an alternate method, called "Bliss independence," is inconsistent with the isobolar approach and also has a less clear conceptual basis. In its simplest application the isobole is the familiar linear plot in cartesian coordinates with intercepts representing the individual drug potencies. It is also shown that the isobole can be nonlinear, a fact recognized by its founder (Loewe) but neglected or rejected by virtually all other users. Whether its shape is linear or nonlinear the isobole is equally useful in detecting synergism and antagonism for drug combinations, and its theoretical basis leads to calculations of the expected effect of a drug combination. Numerous applications of isoboles in preclinical testing have shown that synergism or antagonism is not only a property of the two agonist drugs; the dose ratio is also important, a fact of potential importance to the design and testing of drug combinations in clinical trials.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.