AI: Three drugs discovered to fight effects of ageing

Currently dominating headlines and taking over a number of job roles, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made its latest move by helping to discover three drugs which would help combat the effects of ageing.

A study, which was published today by the University of Edinburgh, used an AI algorithm to find a trio of chemicals, known as ginkgetin, periplocin and oleandrin, that target faulty cells, otherwise known as senescent cells, which are associated with diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s and declines in eyesight and mobility.

Co-author, Dr Diego Oyarzún, said: ‘This study demonstrates that AI can be incredibly effective in helping us identify new drug candidates, particularly at early stages of drug discovery and for diseases with complex biology or few known molecular targets.’

To conduct the study, which was originally reported by Sky News, experts trained a machine learning model to recognise the key features of chemicals with senolytic drugs – often toxic substances against normal, healthy cells in the body – using data from more than 2,500 chemical structures discovered in previous studies.

Following this, researchers used the models to screen more than 4,000 chemicals, identifying 21 potential drug candidates for experimental testing.

All three chemicals, which can also be found in natural products found in traditional herbal medicines, involved in the study were found to be able to remove the defective cells when tested on human cells.

In similar news, this discovery follows the research which led to two new drugs having been found to help slow down the affects of Alzheimer’s. 

Image: LOGAN WEAVER