Attempt to cultivate a 'new way to make' a new coronavirus infection drug with artificial intelligence



Currently, research institutes all over the world are energetically pursuing research on therapeutic agents for novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), but when the effectiveness of the therapeutic agents is confirmed, they emerge as the next issue. The difficult question is, 'How can we secure enough medicine to reach people all over the world?' It was announced that by utilizing the power of

artificial intelligence (AI) to solve such supply chain problems, a new synthetic method of 12 kinds of therapeutic drug candidates was discovered.

Reinforcing the Supply Chain of COVID-19 Therapeutics with Expert-Coded Retrosynthetic Software
https://chemrxiv.org/s/cad7c3f49aa4cbbc5011

In short supply: Using AI to navigate out of a COVID treatment supply issue | University of Michigan News
https://news.umich.edu/in-short-supply-using-ai-to-navigate-out-of-a-covid-treatment-supply-issue/

AI invents new'recipes' for potential COVID-19 drugs | Science | AAAS
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/ai-invents-new-recipes-potential-covid-19-drugs

While COVID-19 was raging, a rush to buy toilet paper broke out in various countries, including Japan, and the supply chains around the world fell into a turmoil.

The purchase of toilet paper and disinfectant due to the new coronavirus panic may occur overseas, and the black market may be formed-GIGAZINE



``When the drug for COVID-19 comes into full-scale use, it seems to have been seen with toilet paper and hand sanitizers,'' said a research team of associate professor Tim Sarnak, who is researching medical science at the University of Michigan. Confusion will also occur with remedies.'

For example, which is the only drug that has been approved for the treatment of COVID-19 in the article creation time Remudeshibiru , it and in the event of a pandemic early COVID-19 was not able to secure only a small 5000 in the United States. Considering that the number of COVID-19 infected people in the United States alone has exceeded 5 million as of August 10, 2020, it can be said that there will be a shortage if treatment with lemdesibir is in full swing. ..

Regarding this problem, a research team at the University of Michigan, which was consulted by Millipore Sigma , which deals with pharmaceuticals, is expected to be a therapeutic drug for COVID-19 by utilizing Synthia , an AI specialized in finding synthetic methods for compounds. We conducted research to find new synthetic methods for existing drugs.



In the study, the research team identified 12 types of drugs that are being tested for their effects on COVID-19. We instructed AI to find a new method for synthesizing the drug based on the data such as the method of synthesizing the drug and the substance used as the material.

The following is the structural formula of the drug that AI searched for a new synthesis method. The drug is in order from the left, anti-viral drugs '

Remudeshibiru ', cough suppressants ' bromhexine ', the anti-influenza drug ' Umifenobiru ', anti-viral drugs, which is also known as Abigan ' favipiravir '



Have been used, such as in AIDS treatment '

ritonavir ', 'of the same AIDS drugs Kobishi stat ', C-type hepatitis antiviral drugs to be used in such as ' ribavirin ', has been used as a cancer treatment and virus infection control ' camostat '



The antiretroviral drug “ darunavir ” that is used in combination with anti-HIV drugs such as ritonavir, the antiretroviral drug “ nelfinavir ” that is also used to treat AIDS, the antiviral drug “ garidecivir ”, and the therapeutic drug for rheumatoid arthritis. There are a total of 12 types of ' balicitinib '.



As a result of using AI to search for a synthetic method of the drug from a publicly available clinical trial database, the research team succeeded in discovering a new synthetic method for 11 kinds of drugs except lemdesibir. The method of synthesizing the drug found in this way has a shorter procedure than the existing one, it is possible to mass-produce in kilogram units, and the cost was equal to or cheaper than the conventional one.

'In most cases, we found a route that was shorter and cheaper than previously used,' said Sarnak. 'For example, bromhexine is expected to be made in just one step. '.

in Science, Posted by log1l_ks