Scientists Use AI to Find Promising New Antibiotic to Fight Evasive Hospital Superbug

Scientists at McMaster University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used artificial intelligence (AI) to discover a new antibiotic which could be used to fight a deadly, drug-resistant pathogen that strikes vulnerable hospital patients.

The process they used could also speed the discovery of other antibiotics to treat many other challenging bacteria.

The researchers were responding to the urgent need for new drugs to treat Acinetobacter baumannii, identified by the World Health Organization as one of the world’s most dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Notoriously difficult to eradicate, A. baumannii can cause pneumonia, meningitis and infect wounds, all of which can lead to death.

A. baumanni is usually found in hospital settings, where it can survive on surfaces for long periods. The pathogen is able to pick up DNA from other species of bacteria in its environment, including antibiotic-resistance genes.

In the study, published today in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, researchers report they used an artificial intelligence algorithm to predict new structural classes of antibacterial molecules, and identified a new antibacterial compound, which they have named abaucin.

Discovering new antibiotics against A. baumannii through conventional screening has been challenging. Traditional methods are time-consuming, costly, and limited in scope.

Modern algorithmic approaches can access hundreds of millions, possibly billions, of molecules with antibacterial properties.

"This work validates the benefits of machine learning in the search for new antibiotics," says Jonathan Stokes, lead author on the paper and an assistant professor in McMaster's Department of Biomedicine & Biochemistry, who conducted the work with James J. Collins, a professor of medical engineering and science at MIT, and McMaster graduate students Gary Liu and Denise Catacutan.

"Using AI, we can rapidly explore vast regions of chemical space, significantly increasing the chances of discovering fundamentally new antibacterial molecules," says Stokes, who belongs to McMaster's Global Nexus School for Pandemic Prevention and Response.

"AI approaches to drug discovery are here to stay and will continue to be refined," says Collins, Life Sciences faculty lead at the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health. "We know algorithmic models work, now it’s a matter of widely adopting these methods to discover new antibiotics more efficiently and less expensively."

Abaucin is especially promising, the researchers report, because it only targets A. baumannii, a crucial finding which means the pathogen is less likely to rapidly develop drug resistance, and which could lead to more precise and effective treatments.

Most antibiotics are broad spectrum in nature, meaning they kill all bacteria, disrupting the gut microbiome, which opens the door to a host of serious infections, including C difficile.

"We know broad-spectrum antibiotics are suboptimal and that pathogens have the ability to evolve and adjust to every trick we throw at them," says Stokes. "AI methods afford us the opportunity to vastly increase the rate at which we discover new antibiotics, and we can do it at a reduced cost. This is an important avenue of exploration for new antibiotic drugs."

Liu G, Catacutan DB, Rathod K et al.
Deep learning-guided discovery of an antibiotic targeting Acinetobacter baumannii.
Nat Chem Biol, 2023. doi: 10.1038/s41589-023-01349-8

Most Popular Now

AI could Improve Heart Attack Diagnosis …

An algorithm developed using artificial intelligence (AI) could soon be used by doctors to diagnose heart attacks with better speed and accuracy than ever before, according to new research from...

New Algorithm can Predict Diabetic Kidne…

Researchers from Sanford Burnham Prebys and the Chinese University of Hong Kong have developed a computational approach to predict whether a person with type 2 diabetes will develop kidney disease...

AI Predicts Future Pancreatic Cancer

An artificial intelligence (AI) tool has successfully identified people at the highest risk for pancreatic cancer up to three years before diagnosis using solely the patients’ medical records, according to...

AI Voice Coach Shows Promise in Depressi…

Artificial intelligence (AI) could be a useful tool in mental health treatment, according to the results of a new pilot study led by University of Illinois Chicago researchers. The study...

ChatGPT Passes Radiology Board Exam

The latest version of ChatGPT passed a radiology board-style exam, highlighting the potential of large language models but also revealing limitations that hinder reliability, according to two new research studies...

Scientists develop AI tool to predict Pa…

Scientists from UNSW Sydney with collaborators at Boston University have developed a tool that shows early promise in detecting Parkinson’s disease years before the first symptoms start appearing. In research published...

Better than Humans: AI in Intensive Care…

In the future, artificial intelligence (AI) will play an important role in medicine. In diagnostics, successful tests have already been performed: for example, the computer can learn to categorise images...

Could Online Gaming Social Networks Have…

For millions of Americans playing some type of video game is a daily occurrence. Games can be a welcome form of entertainment and relaxation for many, and the internet can...

Siemens Healthineers Opens State-of-the-…

Siemens Healthineers has opened its new Education & Development Center (EDC) in Erlangen. The open-plan building offers space for the currently 240 trainees and integrated degree program participants in Erlangen...

Siemens Healthineers Invests 80 Million …

Siemens Healthineers is building a new factory in Forchheim for the cultivation of crystals for semiconductor production. The total investment amounts to 80 million euros. The new factory is expected...

Orion Health Welcomes New Sales Director…

Orion Health has appointed a new sales director for Scotland. Gabriel Radford, who has a background in business development for companies working with health, social care, and local government, will...

AI Tool Outperforms Human Emergency Call…

A team of researchers from Denmark have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) framework to address the number of strokes that go unrecognised by human emergency call handlers.(1) The framework...