Scientists find a new algorithm to produce new
antibiotics and cancer drugs
Recently a group of scientist stumbled upon a computer
algorithm that will make discovery of new drugs much easier. This computer
algorithm reduces the chances of simply rediscovering known compounds. The
algorithm was discovered while they were trying to discover new antibiotic and
cancer drugs. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, found
a new means of searching vast repositories of compounds produced by microbes.
Researchers, including those from the Carnegie Mellon
University in the US, were able to identify known compounds within the
repository and eliminate them from further analysis. This reduces the
repetition of finding the same drug and improving one’s knowledge about drugs.
Once they could eliminate the known compounds within the repository they
focussed on the unknown variants that might potentially be better or more
efficient antibiotics, anticancer drugs or other pharmaceuticals.
In just a week, running on 100 computers, the
algorithm, called Dereplicator+, identified over 5,000 promising, unknown
compounds that merit further investigation, said Hosein Mohimani reportedly, an
assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
Analysing the compounds’ mass spectra — essentially, a
measurement of the masses within a sample that has been ionised — is a
relatively inexpensive way of identifying possible new pharmaceuticals.
However, existing techniques were largely limited to peptides, which have
simple structures such as chains and loops.
To analyse the larger number of complex compounds that
have entangled structures and numerous loops and branches, the researchers
developed a method for predicting how a mass spectrometer would break apart the
molecules. Using 5,000 known compounds and their mass spectra, they trained a
computer model that could then be used to predict how other compounds would
break down.
04.10.2018
Attitude
makes you different from others, while Ego makes you alone from others
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