AI Discovers New Antibiotics to Fight Deadly Superbug –
In a remarkable development that highlights the profound impact of artificial intelligence in healthcare, a new antibiotic capable of killing a deadly superbug has been discovered using AI.
The Superbug Threat
The superbug, known as Acinetobacter baumannii, poses a critical threat to human health. Classified by the World Health Organization among its priority pathogens, these are bacterial families that offer the “greatest threat” to our health. A. baumannii is especially concerning as it is often found in hospitals and nursing homes, attacking patients with weakened immune systems. What makes these bacteria even more dangerous is their ability to resist treatment and spread resistance to other bacteria.
The Role of AI in Discovering the New Antibiotic
Scientists from McMaster University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology embarked on an innovative journey, using AI algorithms to screen thousands of antibacterial molecules. Their goal? To predict new structural classes of antibiotics and find a weapon to combat A. baumannii. This ambitious endeavor resulted in the discovery of a new antibacterial compound, aptly named abaucin.
Methodology: Using AI for Antibacterial Screening
Gary Liu, a graduate student from MacMaster University who worked on the research, described their innovative approach. “My job was to train this model, and all that this model was going to be doing is telling us essentially if new molecules will have antibacterial properties or not,” he explained. “Then basically through that, we’re able to just increase the efficiency of the drug discovery pipeline and… hone in all the molecules that we really want to care about.”
After the model was trained, it analyzed 6,680 compounds in just an hour and a half, ultimately leading to the discovery of abaucin among nine potential antibiotics.
The newly discovered molecule was then tested against A. baumannii in a wound infection model in mice, with promising results. The molecule successfully suppressed the infection, validating the benefits of machine learning in the search for new antibiotics.
The Impact of AI on Future Antibiotic Discovery
Jonathan Stokes, an assistant professor at McMaster University’s department of biomedicine and biochemistry, and a key contributor to the study, commented on the potential of AI. “Using AI, we can rapidly explore vast regions of chemical space, significantly increasing the chances of discovering fundamentally new antibacterial molecules,” he said.
“We know broad-spectrum antibiotics are suboptimal and that pathogens have the ability to evolve and adjust to every trick we throw at them … AI methods afford us the opportunity to vastly increase the rate at which we discover new antibiotics, and we can do it at a reduced cost. This is an important avenue of exploration for new antibiotic drugs,” he added.
The utilization of AI in healthcare, particularly in battling antibiotic resistance, is becoming increasingly evident through groundbreaking studies like this. The advent of AI offers us unprecedented opportunities to expedite the discovery of new antibiotics, all while significantly reducing costs. As we continue to face the challenge of superbugs, the role of AI will undeniably be instrumental in this global health crisis.
As we conclude, we’d like to hear your thoughts. How do you envision the role of AI in future healthcare? How can we leverage AI more effectively to combat antibiotic resistance? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. We look forward to hearing from you!
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