New Antibiotic via AI

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Bugs
Fleury White
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New Antibiotic via AI

Post by Bugs » Thu Feb 20, 2020 5:15 pm

If this isn't too much spin it looks like good news, "repurposing" n unsuccessful diabetic pharmaceutical for antimicrobial use. Still a long way from patient use, but excellent news if it's effective against TB, the #1 antibiotic resistant bug responsible for more deaths worldwide than the other "superbugs" https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... through-ai Cool name as well!
Tests on bacteria collected from patients showed that halicin killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bug that causes TB, and strains of Enterobacteriaceae that are resistant to carbapenems, a group of antibiotics that are considered the last resort for such infections. Halicin also cleared C difficile and multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infections in mice.

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basementer
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Re: New Antibiotic via AI

Post by basementer » Thu Feb 20, 2020 6:51 pm

The article says the compound "fell by the wayside" but doesn't say why. Enthusiasm would be premature if, for instance, it was dropped after phase 1 clinical trials.
Money is just a substitute for luck anyway. - Tom Siddell

Bugs
Fleury White
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Re: New Antibiotic via AI

Post by Bugs » Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:21 pm

Just a tad cynical Basemeter it was dropped as a potential treatment for diabetes https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00018-3 they've done animal model studies already on candidate repurposing molecules, anyway as I said a very welcome new approach

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Woodchopper
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Re: New Antibiotic via AI

Post by Woodchopper » Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:02 pm

Here’s the full article describing what they did: https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(20)30102-1.pdf

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