Machine learning algorithm identifies 3 natural anti-aging chemicals

AI, a new fountain of youth? If you think about it you may age slower! 😊 

This kind of research using AI, i.e. drug screening, is still at a very early stage!

"... Given the potentially deleterious effects on the body [of increasing number of senescent cell with ageing], there has been a push to develop effective senolytics, compounds that clear out senescent cells. 
Previous studies have identified some promising senolytics, but they’re often toxic to healthy cells. Now, a study led by researchers from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland [Adam Smith just turned 300] has used a pioneering method to seek out chemicals that can safely and effectively eliminate these defective cells. ...

The full dataset contained 2,523 compounds and included compounds with both senolytic and non-senolytic properties so as not to bias the machine-learning algorithm. The algorithm was then used to screen more than 4,000 chemicals from which 21 potential candidates were identified.

Testing these candidates, the researchers found that three chemicals – ginkgetin, periplocin, and oleandrin – removed senescent cells without harming healthy cells. Of the three, oleandrin was found to be the most effective. All three are natural products found in traditional herbal medicines. ..."

"... Lab tests in human cells revealed that three of the chemicals – called ginkgetin, periplocin and oleandrin – were able to remove senescent cells without damaging healthy cells. ..."

From the abstract:

"Cellular senescence is a stress response involved in ageing and diverse disease processes including cancer, type-2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and viral infection. Despite growing interest in targeted elimination of senescent cells, only few senolytics are known due to the lack of well-characterised molecular targets. Here, we report the discovery of three senolytics using cost-effective machine learning algorithms trained solely on published data. We computationally screened various chemical libraries and validated the senolytic action of ginkgetin, periplocin and oleandrin in human cell lines under various modalities of senescence. The compounds have potency comparable to known senolytics, and we show that oleandrin has improved potency over its target as compared to best-in-class alternatives. Our approach led to several hundred-fold reduction in drug screening costs and demonstrates that artificial intelligence can take maximum advantage of small and heterogeneous drug screening data, paving the way for new open science approaches to early-stage drug discovery."

Machine learning algorithm identifies 3 natural anti-aging chemicals

AI algorithms find drugs that could combat ageing (primary news source) Three drugs that could help stave off the effects of ageing have been discovered using artificial intelligence (AI), a study suggests.

Discovery of senolytics using machine learning (open access)

Will we see now more of the pretty oleander plant in our gardens?

Fig. 2: Training of machine learning models and computational screening