New York, October 7 (IANS). On one hand, scientists are using AI for advanced pain management, on the other hand, AI algorithms have identified many metabolites and US FDA-approved drugs that are non-addictive and non-opioid. Meaning, if they are used again to get relief from pain, the victim does not get addicted to the medicine.
Feixiong Cheng, director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Genome Center, and tech giant IBM are using AI to discover drugs for advanced pain management, or persistent pain.
The team used new AI tools to predict how 369 gut microbial metabolites and 2,308 FDA-approved drugs would interact with 13 pain-related receptors.
The AI framework has identified several compounds that can be repurposed to provide pain relief. According to the study published in Cell Reports Medicine Journal, testing regarding this is going on in the laboratory.
Relieving chronic pain using opioids (drugs that are addictive and can lead to overdose) is still a challenge because of the increased risk of side effects.
Yunguang Qiu, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Cheng’s lab, said the drug was dosed to specific pain receptors of the protein subgroup G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The results were good. It was found that these provide relief from pain. It was non-addictive and non-opioid. Now the only question is how to target these receptors?
To determine whether a molecule will work as a drug, researchers need to figure out how it physically interacts with proteins in our bodies (in this case, our pain receptors). And how it affects them.
To do this, researchers also need a 3D understanding of both molecules based on extensive 2D data about their physical, structural and chemical properties.
The research team used the tool to predict whether a molecule could bind to a specific pain receptor; Where on the receptor will a molecule physically bind; how strongly the molecule will bind to that receptor; And will binding of a molecule to a receptor turn the signaling effect on or off?
“We believe this foundational model can provide powerful AI techniques to address many challenging health conditions,” Cheng said.
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