Scientists use AI to discover a new antibiotic

[speak easy]

Scientists use AI to discover new antibiotic to treat deadly superbug

Scientists using artificial intelligence have discovered a new antibiotic that can kill a deadly superbug.

According to a new study published on Thursday in the science journal Nature Chemical Biology, a group of scientists from McMaster University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a new antibiotic that can be used to kill a deadly hospital superbug.

The superbug in question is Acinetobacter baumannii, which the World Health Organization has classified as a “critical” threat among its “priority pathogens” – a group of bacteria families that pose the “greatest threat” to human health.

Thursday’s study revealed that researchers used an AI algorithm to screen thousands of antibacterial molecules in an attempt to predict new structural classes. As a result of the AI screening, researchers were able to identify a new antibacterial compound which they named abaucin.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/25/artificial-intelligence-antibiotic-deadly-superbug-hospital

A the discovery of a new antibiotic effective against a Gram-negative bacteria is a real breakthrough. Antibiotic development has stalled. It has been 36 years since the last new class of antibiotics, the lipopeptides, were discovered in 1987.

Deep learning-guided discovery of an antibiotic targeting Acinetobacter baumannii

Acinetobacter baumannii is a nosocomial Gram-negative pathogen that often displays multidrug resistance. Discovering new antibiotics against A. baumannii has proven challenging through conventional screening approaches. Fortunately, machine learning methods allow for the rapid exploration of chemical space, increasing the probability of discovering new antibacterial molecules. Here we screened ~7,500 molecules for those that inhibited the growth of A. baumannii in vitro. We trained a neural network with this growth inhibition dataset and performed in silico predictions for structurally new molecules with activity against A. baumannii. Through this approach, we discovered abaucin, an antibacterial compound with narrow-spectrum activity against A. baumannii. Further investigations revealed that abaucin perturbs lipoprotein trafficking through a mechanism involving LolE. Moreover, abaucin could control an A. baumannii infection in a mouse wound model. This work highlights the utility of machine learning in antibiotic discovery and describes a promising lead with targeted activity against a challenging Gram-negative pathogen.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-023-01349-8.epdf