Scientists use AI to create new superbug-killing antibiotics
Scientists have used artificial intelligence to design two antibiotics that could provide a powerful weapon against superbugs including MRSA.
In what scientists hope could start a “second golden age” in antibiotic discovery, the drugs, created by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Techno- logy, were able to kill antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea and MRSA in the laboratory and in tests on infected mice.
The MIT scientists used AI to design more than 36 possible compounds, which were each then screened by AI for antimicrobial properties.
The antibiotics with the most potential were created into chemical compounds, then tested on bacteria and on mice infected with an antibioticresistant strain of gonorrhoea and MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). They showed “strong antibacterial activity” and were able to clear an MRSA skin infection in mice.
Before the drugs could be prescribed for humans, they need to be refined in the lab and then put through several rounds of clinical trials, a process that will take several years, according to the study published in the journal Cell.
Professor James Collins, the senior author, said: “We’re excited about the new possibilities that this project opens up for antibiotics development. Our work shows the power of AI from a drug design standpoint, and enables us to exploit much larger chemical spaces that were previously inaccessible.”
Most antibiotics in use today were discovered in the mid-20th century and scientists hope AI could provide a solution to the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. More than a million people a year die due to antimicrobial resistance.
This includes infections with the MRSA bacteria, sometimes called a “superbug” because it is resistant to several common antibiotics
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