TL;DR:
- Integrated Biosciences discovers 3 new senolytic compounds using AI to screen over 800,000 compounds.
- These compounds exhibit high selectivity and favorable medicinal chemistry properties.
- Senolytics selectively induce apoptosis in senescent cells and can combat age-related diseases.
- The compounds discovered have the potential for successful drugs with improved prospects in clinical trials.
- Testing these compounds on mice corresponding to 80-year-old humans proved efficient in removing senescent cells.
- The discovery is a significant milestone in longevity research and AI application in drug discovery.
- Integrated Biosciences is at the forefront of anti-aging research, aiming to address one of the fundamental challenges in biology.
Main AI News:
A ground-breaking study conducted by Integrated Biosciences, a leading biotechnology firm that integrates synthetic biology and machine learning, has revealed the immense potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in discovering new senolytic compounds. These small molecules have the ability to hinder age-related processes such as inflammation, fibrosis, and cancer. Through screening over 800,000 compounds using AI, the experts have identified three new drug candidates with superior medicinal chemistry properties compared to senolytics currently in use.
The co-founder of Integrated Biosciences, Felix Wong, calls this research result “a significant milestone for both longevity research and the application of artificial intelligence to drug discovery.” The company’s data shows that it is now possible to explore chemical space in silico and uncover multiple candidate anti-aging compounds that are more likely to succeed in clinical trials.
Senolytics are known to selectively induce apoptosis in senescent cells that no longer divide. However, most previously identified senolytic compounds are plagued with poor bioavailability and undesirable side effects. This new discovery presents an opportunity to create therapeutic interventions that remove senescent cells from the body without harming host cells. The three compounds discovered using Integrated Biosciences’ platform display high selectivity and favorable medicinal chemistry properties, which make them ideal candidates for successful drugs.
Integrated Biosciences trained deep neural networks to predict the senolytic activity of a wide range of molecules, leading to the discovery of these potent and selective compounds. They bind Bcl-2, a protein that regulates apoptosis and is also a chemotherapy target, and exhibit favorable toxicity profiles in hemolysis and genotoxicity experiments. In mice that corresponded to 80-year-old humans, the compounds efficiently removed senescent cells and reduced the expression of genes associated with senescence in the kidneys.
“This work illustrates how AI can be used to bring medicine a step closer to therapies that address aging, one of the fundamental challenges in biology,” said senior author James J. Collins, a professor of Medical Engineering and Science at MIT and founding chair of Integrated Biosciences Scientific Advisory Board.
The study, published in the journal Nature Aging, is expected to drive significant progress in longevity research, making it one of the most important works in the field of drug discovery. Integrated Biosciences is at the forefront of anti-aging research and is poised to make a significant impact on human health in the future.
Conlcusion:
Integrated Biosciences’ discovery of new senolytic compounds through the use of AI has the potential to revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry. The identified compounds exhibit superior medicinal chemistry properties and selective induction of apoptosis in senescent cells.
These compounds could significantly impact the treatment of age-related diseases such as diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and cardiovascular disease. The discovery highlights the increasing importance of machine learning and AI in drug discovery and development. As such, it has the potential to drive substantial progress in longevity research and revolutionize the pharmaceutical market.
