The University of Surrey has actually developed an expert system (AI) design that determines chemical substances that promote healthy aging — leading the way towards pharmaceutical developments that extend an individual’s life expectancy.
In a paper released by Nature Communication’s Scientific Reports, a group of chemists from Surrey developed a maker finding out design based upon the info from the DrugAge database to forecast whether a substance can extend the life of Caenorhabditis elegans — a clear worm that shares a comparable metabolic process to human beings. The worm’s much shorter life expectancy provided the scientists the chance to see the effect of the chemical substances.
The AI singled out 3 substances that have an 80 percent opportunity of increasing the life expectancy of elegans:
- flavonoids (anti-oxidant pigments discovered in plants that promote cardiovascular health),
- fats (such as omega 3), and
- Organooxygens (substances which contain carbon to oxygen bonds, such as alcohol).
Sofia Kapsiani, co-author of the research study and last year undergraduate trainee at the University of Surrey, stated:
“Ageing is increasingly being recognized as a set of diseases in modern medicine, and we can apply the tools of the digital world, such as AI, to help slow down or protect against aging and age-related diseases. Our study demonstrates the revolutionary ability of AI to aid the identification of compounds with anti-aging properties.”
Dr. Brendan Howlin, lead author of the research study and Senior Lecturer in Computational Chemistry at the University of Surrey, stated:
“This research shows the power and potential of AI, which is a specialty of the University of Surrey, to drive significant benefits in human health.”
Reference: “Random forest classification for predicting lifespan-extending chemical compounds” by Sofia Kapsiani and Brendan J. Howlin, 5 July 2021, Scientific Reports.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-93070-6
