Like any other sector, healthcare is not new to the application of Artificial Intelligence. As pharmaceutical sciences revolve around various scientific procedures related to drug discovery and development, they require many efforts to expand healthcare services. Here, AI provides the finest approach to a better healthcare system. However, in order to provide accurate results, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning generally require massive data, and most of the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors have extensive data.

According to reports, The McKinsey global institute generated about $100 billion value worth of data in the US healthcare system in 2019. AI and ML aid in managing the top healthcare options for physicians, patients, insurers and regulators. The data are obtained and generated from various sources like academic domains, research and development organisations, clinical and community pharmacies, and industrial units.

Emerging technologies like AI and ML offer a better option to synchronise huge amounts of healthcare data and improve the system and treatments. Nowadays, these cutting-edge technologies are already a player in the industry, predominantly in various processes of pharmaceutical industries like drug discovery and evaluation of active compounds, disease diagnosis, clinical trials, radiotherapy and smart electronic health record.

Application of AI/ML in Pharmacology

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have a pivotal role in pharmacological sciences. Applying many analytical techniques like MRI scan, X-ray, ECG, and others will get more refined results with the help of variable sensor and data acquisition systems rather than the conventional methods. This enhances the healthcare-based data by detecting the retina and dermal response by observing the input and stored data.

An antibiotic to fight the superbug

 Recently, a team of scientists has made a substantial breakthrough using Artificial Intelligence by discovering a new antibiotic that has the power to eliminate a highly perilous superbug. As per a recently published study in the popular science journal Nature Chemical Biology, the researchers of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and McMaster University have made this magnificent discovery. It was reported that they discovered an antibiotic with potent antimicrobial properties against a deadly hospital superbug.

What is this superbug?

According to WHO, this Acinetobacter Baumannii bacteria can develop powerful resistance mechanisms and are able to transfer genetic material that can enable other bacteria to become drug-resistant as well. Such bacteria families are referred to as the greatest threat to humanity. They are a threat to healthcare facilities such as hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes, as well as the patients who are in need of ventilators and blood catheters and especially patients with wounds after surgery.

The bacteria are powerful enough to live a long time on environmental surfaces and objects easily and can be spread through dirty hands. The bacteria are capable of causing infections in the urinary tracts and lungs as well, other than blood infection. However, per the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Acinetobacter Baumannii can colonise or live in a patient without showing symptoms or causing any infections.

The study

The recent study proved that the researchers used the AI algorithm in screening hundreds of thousands of antibacterial molecules to predict new structural classes. Using AI screening, they identified a new antibacterial compound and called it “Abaucin”. As part of training this AI model, the scientists and researchers used it to analyse almost 6,680 compounds not encountered before.

The observation and analysis were completed in one and a half hours. They generated serval hundred compounds from which 240 were selected for lab testing. The lab testing helped identify nine potential antibiotics, including Abaucin. They later tested the new molecule against the bacteria in a wound infection model in mice and found that the molecule suppressed the infection.

The Guardian quoted Jonathan Stokes, an assistant professor who led the study, from the Department of Biomedicine and Biochemistry, McMaster University “This work validates the benefits of machine learning in the search for new antibiotics”. He further explained, “Using AI, we can rapidly explore vast regions of chemical space, significantly increasing the chances of discovering fundamentally new antibacterial molecules”.

• Photo by Christina Victoria Craft on Unsplash
• https://www.india.com/science/artificial-intelligence-scientists-discover-superbug-hospital-bug-antibiotic-6075992/
• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43440-022-00445-1