Mechanistic Language Modeling and Oxygenated 3D Screening Reveal Berberine and Enzalutamide Synergy in Resistant Prostate Cancer.
Resistance to androgen receptor inhibitors remains a primary challenge in prostate cancer treatment, yet identifying synergistic co-therapies is hindered by immense combinatorial search spaces and the
APA
Lo CH, Shi K, et al. (2026). Mechanistic Language Modeling and Oxygenated 3D Screening Reveal Berberine and Enzalutamide Synergy in Resistant Prostate Cancer.. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.24.701539
MLA
Lo CH, et al.. "Mechanistic Language Modeling and Oxygenated 3D Screening Reveal Berberine and Enzalutamide Synergy in Resistant Prostate Cancer.." bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2026.
PMID
41659618
Abstract
Resistance to androgen receptor inhibitors remains a primary challenge in prostate cancer treatment, yet identifying synergistic co-therapies is hindered by immense combinatorial search spaces and the limited interpretability of predictive computation models. Here, we developed an integrated discovery-validation axis coupling knowledge-augmented large language models with oxygen-supplemented 3D spheroid assays. By leveraging inherent model stochasticity, our framework measures the degree of consensus across independent predictions to establish a formal metric for predictive accuracy. This principle enables high-throughput assessment of complex signaling crosstalk, yielding mechanistic rationales for all predictions and defining a high-confidence zone that minimizes experimental attrition. Utilizing this approach to screen 3,592 natural products, we identified a previously unrecognized synergy between berberine and enzalutamide that re-sensitizes resistant cells. Validation confirms that berberine perturbs the PI3K/AKT/mTOR and AMPK axes, a finding consistent with the mechanistic rationales computationally derived by the framework. Integrating interpretable AI with physiologically relevant 3D screening provides a scalable methodology for the rational discovery of synergistic therapies.