As AI news related to Covid-19:
AI used to virtual test 400,000 molecules on anti-Covid properties and ended up with 7,000 potential drugs that were tested in vitro, of which 40 showed activity against the virus. A molecule named Raloxifene for now the most promising.
Speed counts
AI used to virtual test 400,000 molecules on anti-Covid properties and ended up with 7,000 potential drugs that were tested in vitro, of which 40 showed activity against the virus. A molecule named Raloxifene for now the most promising.
Speed counts
Exscalate4CoV, using a unique combination of high performance computing power and AI with biological processing, brings together 18 partners and further 15 associated members. This includes supercomputing centres in Italy, Spain and Germany, large research centres, pharmaceutical companies and biological institutes from across Europe. The platform has around 120 Petaflops computing power, allowing research into the behaviors of molecules with the aim of identifying an effective treatment against coronavirus. The project's chemical library is constantly growing thanks to agreements with newly associated pharmaceutical companies.
The consortium has already virtually tested 400 000 molecules using its supercomputers. 7 000 molecules were preselected and further tested “in vitro”. Raloxifene emerged as a promising molecule: according to the project, it could be effective in blocking the replication of the virus in cells, and could thus hold up the progression of the disease. Researchers have indicated that its advantages include its high patient tolerability, safety and established toxicological profile.
Background
Using a European supercomputing platform, one of the world's most powerful, Exscalate4CoV is able to perform in weeks a screening process that with traditional techniques would take many years. In a first step it has so far identified 6 out of 25 different protein models of the novel coronavirus that are constantly evolving, with various mutations received weekly, which are translated into a digital form for use in the next step. The second step is to match the digital structure of coronavirus proteins against the available library of molecules. In the third and final step, the identified molecules undergo several additional biological screening operations in laboratories located in Belgium and Germany to understand how an identified molecule interacts with the virus model and to assess the degree to which it can stop its activity.
In the next phase, the project will enlarge the above tests by considering an extended library of 5 million molecules, out of the 500 billion molecules it disposes. It is expected that further potential molecules will be identified and contribute to an effective overall treatment of the disease.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_890