Researchers have discovered a super-powerful new antibiotic compound for the first time using artificial intelligence. The new drug that was discovered using an advanced machine learning algorithm and has successfully removed strains of bacteria in mice which are resistant to all known antibiotics. 

A team led by Regina Barzilay and James Collins from MIT—identified the antibiotic. The drug works differently to existing antibacterials compounds. The study published in the journal Cell, says that the compound wiped out a range of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, including Acinetobacter Baumannii and Enterobacteriaceae. These are high-priority pathogens that the World Health Organization( WHO) termed “critical”. 

The algorithm first studied the molecular features of good antibiotics. This was done by going through a library of more than 6,000 compounds under investigation for treating various human diseases. The algorithm targeted compounds that looked effective but unlike existing antibiotics. The algorithm then scanned a digital database of 1.5 billion chemical compounds to find ones that may be effective at killing bacteria. The program shortlisted 23 potential antibiotics, of which two appear to be particularly potent. The researchers now intend to search more of the database.

Antibiotic resistance arises when bacteria mutate and bypass the antimicrobial drugs. According to the United Nations, pathogens that are resistant to multiple drugs could kill 10 million people around the world every year by 2050 if adequate measures are not taken. 

“In terms of antibiotic discovery, this is absolutely a first,” said Regina Barzilay, a senior researcher on the project and specialist in machine learning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Inventing effective drugs is a costly affair. It is a time-consuming process as well. According to experts most of these discoveries also tend to only focus on a relatively narrow spectrum of chemical compounds. However, machine learning and AI have come to great help in this scenario. AI enables scientists to identify a powerful new compound in a short amount of time.

Image by Ulrike Leone from Pixabay