The tireless search for the elixir of life has led humanity to explore various ways to combat the effects of aging. In this quest for eternal youth, scientists at the University of Edinburgh have turned to a modern ally: artificial intelligence (AI).
These researchers have made promising progress in fighting aging by developing drugs that harness artificial intelligence to safely eliminate senescent cells. These cells, which accumulate with age, are considered responsible for a number of age-related conditions, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, and vision and mobility problems.
In accordance with Mirrorthe innovative method they used led to the discovery of three chemicals with senolytic properties. What makes this advance even more relevant is that these compounds are presented as a much more affordable alternative compared to conventional detection methods.
Until now, safely eliminating senescent cells has been a challenge, as existing drugs tend to be highly toxic to healthy cells in the body.
Identification of drugs
The research team has managed to identify these safe senolytic drugs using artificial intelligence. They have developed a machine learning model that was trained to recognize key features of senolytic compounds, based on data from more than 4,000 chemical structures obtained from previous studies.
The result was a set of 21 molecules that the artificial intelligence model rated with a high probability of being senolytic and with the potential to be subjected to experimental tests.
Dr Diego Oyarzun, from the School of Computing and the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, highlighted the effectiveness of artificial intelligence in identifying new drug candidates, especially in the early stages of drug discovery and for diseases with complex biology or few known molecular targets.
Laboratory tests on human cells revealed that three of these compounds, called ginkgetin, periplocin and oleandrin, had the ability to eliminate senescent cells without harming healthy cells. Notably, these three compounds are natural products found in traditional herbal medicines, suggesting a less invasive approach to combat aging.