Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have made a breakthrough in developing safe and effective antibiotics to combat resistant bacteria, leveraging artificial intelligence to engineer a new drug that has shown promise in animal trials. The team used a large language model, similar to the one powering ChatGPT, to reengineer an existing antibiotic called Protegrin-1, which is great at killing bacteria but toxic to humans. By identifying ways to modify the antibiotic without losing its activity, the researchers created a safer and more effective version, dubbed bacterially selective Protegrin-1.2 (bsPG-1.2). In mice infected with multidrug-resistant bacteria, treatment with bsPG-1.2 significantly reduced detectable bacteria in their organs. The study's co-senior authors, Claus Wilke and Bryan Davies, believe that large language models will be widely used for developing therapeutics going forward. This project highlights the potential of artificial intelligence to meet societal needs, a key theme at UT, which has declared 2024 the Year of AI.
↧