Researchers in Canada have found a promising antibiotic with the help of artificial intelligence to effectively fight against an extremely dangerous bacterium called “Acinetobacter baumannii”. The bacterium causes RAS infections and lung inflammation and is resistant to many existing drugs. Antibiotic development has been a problem as bacteria constantly mutate and adapt to drugs.
Using AI has allowed scientists to quickly analyze chemical compounds and identify those that can effectively destroy the infection, reducing the time required to start clinical trials. In the case of “Acinetobacter Baumannii”, researchers from the University of McMaster in Ontario used AI to process a list of 6,680 compounds in just an hour and a half, making a shortlist of potential drugs. Manual study to achieve the same result would take much longer.
The powerful antibiotic, Abaucin, is found to attack only this specific bacterium and not all in a row like most of the known drugs. As a result, it offers promising news as the so-called superbacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to ordinary antibiotics.
Nevertheless, the creation of an Abaucine-based medicine is still far away. Scientists need to conduct numerous tests and experiments to ensure the drug is safe for humans. Dr. Jonathan Stox from the University of McMaster expects that such a medicine will appear no earlier than 2030.
AI in medicine complements research, allowing doctors to focus on more important work. The use of artificial intelligence for the rapid selection of chemical compounds saves time and resources of researchers and contributes to accelerate the drug development process.
Earlier in May, it was reported that a promising system based on artificial intelligence allows robots to conduct up to 10 thousand scientific experiments per day even without human participation. The more often such news is released, the closer humanity is to creating super cures capable of defeating even complicated diseases.