How artificial intelligence can help in the quest for eternal youth

The search for the elixir of life is inherent to humanity. While ancient Greek mythology told the story of how Zeus poisoned the Titan Cronus, his father, to achieve immortality, modern physics looks at less violent ways to manipulate time to our advantage.

A group of scientists from the Californian company Integrated Biosciences, in collaboration with researchers from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the US, went one step further.

The name of the study they published, ‘Discovering small-molecule senolytics with deep neural networks’, may sound complicated.

This may be why its dissemination has not gone much beyond the academic field since the research was detailed in an article in the journal Nature aging in May this year.

But what scientists managed to do, to simplify the explanation, was Using artificial intelligence (AI), we search for possible medicines that can slow down the aging of our cells and thus combat diseases such as fibrosis, tumors, inflammation and osteoarthritis.

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The text describes their findings as follows: “We trained deep learning models with results from a sample of small molecules for senolytic activity and applied our models to discover structurally diverse compounds.”

“Finding a new drug is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” American physicist and mathematician Felix Wong, a specialist in biophysics, lead author of the study and one of the founders of Integrated Biosciences, told BBC News Brazil.

“In our case, the haystack consists of all potential chemical compounds that have already been created or could be developed.”

Using artificial intelligence, Wong was able to test how more than 800,000 chemical solution options reacted with potential drugs capable of selecting and eliminating senescent cells, known as the body’s ‘zombie cells’ that lead to aging processes.

At the end of the experiment, his team managed to identify three potential drugs that could, in theory, achieve this kind of effect.

“If we were to look at everything, that is, look at each connection one by one, it would require significant effort as the haystack would be virtually infinite,” says Wong.

“We use AI to sort through this haystack much more efficiently, with the machine able to predict which of these drug candidates are most likely to work.””.

Speaking to Nature Aging, biophysicist Andrew Rutenberg, a professor at Dalhousie University in Canada, highlighted this methodology as the big differentiator of the study.

“This impressive work uses machine deep learning techniques to explore different molecular structures and use them as new senolytics.”

Authors show how chemical informatics can be used to create promising new drugs in the fight against agingthen test them and share details of their software to help accelerate future molecular discoveries.

How to train AI for science

The experiment began with the preparation of the machine with which it could be carried out.

The scientists first tested nearly 2,400 compounds to evaluate their potential as potential zombie cell killers. They then fed the software with the collected data.

The AI ​​was then used to search for the best anti-aging drug candidates from more than 800,000 options.

The robot can test all alternatives simultaneously in search of the most effective medicine. In scientific jargon, this phase of the experiment was carried out ‘in silicon’, that is, limited to the digital environment.

Using artificial intelligence screening, 216 compounds were obtained. Of them, 25 showed high senolytic activity, meaning they are very effective at killing zombie cells.

New laboratory experiments then narrowed the list to three possible drugs. One of them was tested on an 80-year-old mouse.

The scientists discovered a decrease in biomarkers of aging, that is, the number of “zombies” in the kidneys of rodents.

According to Wong, this is “indicates that the compound can effectively reduce cell aging in living animals”.

For the time being, the three solutions in the test phase are called BRD-K20733377, BRD-K56819078 and BRD-K44839765.

Complicated acronyms that look like they came from lab bottle labels. “But one day they could help us all live longer, healthier lives,” Wong hopes.

Human testing

In the screening of compounds, carried out by artificial intelligence, one of the main factors taken into account was the likely side effects of the drugs.

“We have been using computers in biological experiments for more than fifty years, but AI has advanced so far that today it is possible to conduct experiments on this scale,” Brazilian biologist Aline Martins told the BBC.

She is a researcher at Scripps Research Institutein the city of San Diego, California, where he conducts research using artificial intelligence to look for more efficient biomarkers (biological compounds that can detect and therefore help prevent).

Martins, who is not among the study’s authors, was enthusiastic about her colleagues’ work because “proven in many ways how thousands of existing substances, with active ingredients described in the scientific literature, can be reused to combat aging.””.

He also emphasizes that this is “something that would be impossible in humans, or in the laboratory, without using this silicon environment.”

Aged cells are not necessarily bad for our body. On the contrary, they also act as a natural anti-cancer mechanism.

“By preventing damaged cells from dividing, this process reduces the chance of cells growing out of control and becoming cancerous,” says Felix Wong.

But they are also the cause of aging and if they occur continuously, they cause conditions such as osteoarthritis, inflammation or even cancer.

“What we are looking for today is a balanced senolitic agent capable of stopping our aging processes, but without causing the even more harmful and toxic effects of the process,” emphasizes Aline Martins.

Wong thinks we could be close to this discovery.

“We follow the rituals of science. “We hope to eventually test this in humans, with the aim of using these compounds to extend our lifespan by eliminating subpopulations of aging cells that are harmful to us.”

The elixir of life?

An ancient Chinese myth, dating back to the 2nd century BC, tells the story of an archer, Hou Yi, who, after saving his people in a heroic feat, obtained the elixir of life from the goddess Xiwangmu. The potion can grant you immortality.

However, his wife, Chang’e, drank the divine cocktail one day to prevent a thief from stealing it. With this, she was the one who achieved immortality and, according to legend, flew to the moon, where she would live to this day.

Are Wong and his team on their way to discovering the elixir of life?

The scientist himself does not believe this is the case. “Senescence (the aging process of cells) is just one aspect of maturation.”

That’s why, according to him These drugs, even if successful, will not be “the fountain of youth.”

“To achieve this, we should also focus on other milestones in the aging process, such as stem cell depletion.”

The goal is therefore to find paths that do not lead to immortality, but to a long and at the same time healthy life.

Because, from the point of view of both physics and philosophy, immortality is unattainable.

As Italian physicist Guido Tonelli recently told BBC News Brazil: “Nothing is eternal, every structure of matter, whether it is a human, a star or a galaxy, is intrinsically fragile. Sooner or later everything will come to an end.” (JO)