Finding new drugs – called "drug discovery" – is an expensive and time-consuming task.
  • Machine learning can speed up drug discovery and reduce costs.
  • Senolytics are drugs that slow down aging and prevent age-related diseases.
  • Aging cells secrete inflammatory proteins that can cause disease.
  • Eliminating senescent cells may ease the course of diseases including diabetes, COVID, pulmonary fibrosis and cancer.
  • About 80 senolytics are known, but only two have been tested in humans.
  • Machine learning models can identify new candidate senolytic drugs.
  • The best AI model identified 21 molecules with a high probability of being senolytics.
  • Three of these drugs (periplocin, oleandrin, ginkgetin) are able to destroy senescent cells.
  • Oleandrin proved to be more effective than the most effective senolytic drug.
  • An interdisciplinary approach can accelerate the search for treatments for diseases.