人工智能首次发现了一种强大的新型抗生素

人工智能首次发现了一种强大的新型抗生素

Artificial intelligence (AI) has proved to be a useful ally in the battle against antibiotic resistance. A powerful antibiotic that’s even able to kill superbugs has been discovered thanks to a machine-learning algorithm.

人工智能(AI)已被证明是对抗抗生素耐药性的一个有用的盟友。一种强大的抗生素甚至可以杀死超级细菌，这多亏了一种机器学习算法。

Researchers from MIT used a novel computer algorithm to sift through a vast digital archive of over 100 million chemical compounds and spot those that were able to kill bacteria using different mechanisms from existing drugs.

麻省理工学院的研究人员使用了一种新的计算机算法，筛选了超过1亿种化合物的庞大数字档案，并找出那些能够利用不同于现有药物的机制杀死细菌的化合物。

Reported in the journal Cell, this method highlighted a molecule that appeared to possess some truly remarkable antibiotic properties. The team named the molecule halicin, a hat tip to the sentient AI system “Hal” from Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

在《细胞》杂志上报道，这种方法突出了一种分子，它似乎具有一些真正非凡的抗生素特性。研究小组将这种分子命名为halicin，这是对斯坦利·库布里克的电影《2001太空漫游》中有感知能力的人工智能系统“Hal”的致敬。

When tested in mice, halicin was able to effectively treat tuberculosis and drug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, the family of bacteria that includes E. coli and Salmonella. It also proved extremely effective against Clostridium difficile, a "stomach bug" that often sweeps through hospitals, and another drug-resistant bacterium that can cause infections of the blood, urinary tract, and lungs.

当在老鼠身上进行试验时，halicin能够有效地治疗肺结核和耐药肠杆菌科，包括大肠杆菌和沙门氏菌。它还被证明对艰难梭状芽胞杆菌(一种经常席卷医院的“胃病”)和另一种可导致血液、尿道和肺部感染的耐药细菌非常有效。

Tom Hale

“Our approach revealed this amazing molecule which is arguably one of the more powerful antibiotics that has been discovered,” James Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science in MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and Department of Biological Engineering, said in a statement.

麻省理工学院医学工程与科学研究所(IMES)和生物工程系的Termeer医学工程与科学教授詹姆斯·柯林斯在一份声明中说:“我们的方法揭示了这种神奇的分子，它可能是目前发现的最强大的抗生素之一。”

Strangest of all, this potent antibiotic is structurally not like any other antibiotic seen before. If it were up to just humans, it’s very likely this antibiotic would not have been discovered at all because it looks so unusual.

最奇怪的是，这种强效抗生素在结构上与以前见过的任何一种抗生素都不一样。如果只是对人类来说，这种抗生素很可能根本就不会被发现，因为它看起来太不寻常了。

“This groundbreaking work signifies a paradigm shift in antibiotic discovery and indeed in drug discovery more generally,” added Roy Kishony, a professor of biology and computer science at Technion (the Israel Institute of Technology), who was not involved in the study.

以色列理工学院的生物学和计算机科学教授罗伊·基松尼补充道:“这项开创性的工作标志着抗生素发现乃至更广泛意义上的药物发现的范式转变。”他没有参与这项研究。

Following the success of halicin, the team returned to the database and used the AI algorithm to sniff out more potential candidates. Within just three days, it identified 23 candidates that were structurally dissimilar to existing antibiotics and non-toxic to human cells. Later tests proved at least eight of these molecules had antibacterial properties, and two were particularly powerful.

在halicin取得成功后，该团队回到了数据库，并使用人工智能算法来寻找更多的潜在候选者。在短短三天的时间里，它发现了23种候选药物，它们的结构与现有的抗生素不同，而且对人体细胞无毒。后来的试验证明，这些分子中至少有八种具有抗菌性能，其中两种特别强大。

All of these candidates could turn out to be invaluable tools for tackling superbugs and antibiotic-resistant infections. Due to the overuse of antibiotics, some potentially dangerous bacteria have evolved drug resistance, making them extremely tricky to treat. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently estimate that at least 2.8 million people get an antibiotic-resistant infection each year in the US and more than 35,000 people die from one. This is a trend that’s not going to stop any time soon as more and more bacteria gain resistance to conventional drugs.

所有这些候选基因都可能成为对付超级细菌和耐抗生素感染的宝贵工具。由于抗生素的过度使用，一些潜在的危险细菌产生了耐药性，使得治疗变得极其棘手。美国疾病控制与预防中心(简称cdc)目前估计，美国每年至少有280万人感染耐抗生素感染，超过3.5万人因此死亡。随着越来越多的细菌对传统药物产生耐药性，这一趋势在任何时候都不会停止。

Thankfully, as this study shows, AI could help researchers expand our current arsenal of antibiotics and keep this problem at bay.

值得庆幸的是，正如这项研究显示的那样，人工智能可以帮助研究人员扩大我们现有的抗生素库，并将这个问题控制在一定范围内。