The golden age of antibiotic discovery from the '50s and '60s lies far behind us and antibiotic resistance is slowly becoming an enormous problem. Will artificial intelligence be able to save us from a world without working antibiotics?
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Antibiotic resistance is slowly becoming an enormous problem in the medical world, will artificial intelligence be able to save us from a world without working antibiotics?
The golden age of antibiotic discovery from the '50s and '60s lies far behind us. Back then, countless new classes of antibiotics were discovered in rapid succession. Sadly though, since then, hardly any new types of antibiotics have been found while antibiotic resistance is slowly becoming an immense problem.
Without the development of new and stronger antibiotics, an era where small injuries and ordinary infections can kill, and where complex procedures such as chemotherapy and surgery become too risky, is a genuine possibility. The world health organization even stated that antibiotic resistance even endangers the world as we know it as it can lead to huge epidemics if we are not careful.
Taking all of the above into consideration, the more it becomes clear how critical a recent discovery of a potent antibiotic by MIT researchers actually is. They identified the new antibiotic using artificial intelligence, machine learning to be precise. The drug was able to kill many of the most problematic disease-causing bacteria in laboratory testing. Incredibly enough, it was even able to kill off several strains that are immune to all known current antibiotics.
The scientists used a computer program designed to pick out possible antibiotics that eliminate bacteria using mechanisms than differ from those of currently existing drugs. Amazingly the program is able to scan over a hundred million chemical compositions per day!
MIT scientist employed a machine-learning algorithm to detect a drug called halicin. It is capable of eliminating many strains of bacteria. Halicin (top row) prevented the development of antibiotic resistance in E. coli, while ciprofloxacin (bottom row) did not.
Image Credit: Collins Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology - CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
James Collins, one of the researchers and MIT Professor of medical engineering and science, stated that their goal was to create a platform that would enable them to harness the power of artificial intelligence to usher in a new age of antibiotic drug development. Their approach uncovered a marvelous molecule that is arguably one of the most potent antibiotics that has ever been discovered.
Amazingly, the antibiotic mentioned above was not the only antibiotic the researchers found. It turns out they identified several other promising antibiotic candidates as well. The scientists plan to further test these candidates in the future. As if that isn't enough, the computer model is also believed to be capable of designing new drugs based on what it has discovered about chemical compositions that facilitate drugs to eliminate bacteria.
The researchers shared their findings in the science journal cell. If you are interested in a more detailed description of the study, be sure to check it out.
Sources and further reading: A Deep Learning Approach to Antibiotic Discovery - Antimicrobial resistance - Antibiotics - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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