2023-08-22 12:15:30
Our genomes (our genetic material) and the genomes of our distant ancestors express proteins with natural antimicrobial properties. The concept of protein de-extinction defends that these substances could be very promising candidates to be efficient new drugs with few or no side effects. Going far enough down this path could go a long way in combating the problem of growing resistance of pathogenic bacteria to antibiotics.
The fact that these proteins have been the result of natural evolution says a lot in favor of their efficiency.
The strategy of de-extinguishing proteins of this class shows much more promise than that of finding or designing substances using conventional strategies, even powered by artificial intelligence.
This is the belief of the team made up of, among others, Cesar de la Fuente, from the University of Pennsylvania, and Jacqueline Maasch, now at Cornell University, both institutions in the United States.
This group of scientists has opened the field of protein de-extinction.
And it has done so beginning with an exploration of the proteomic expressions of two extinct types of humans: Neanderthals and Denisovans.
De la Fuente, Maasch and their colleagues have de-extincted proteins from two extinct types of humans: Neanderthals and Denisovans. Some of these proteins seem to be able to protect us current humans against various infectious diseases. (Illustration: Ella Marushchenko)
The result of this exploration, carried out with the help of artificial intelligence, has been the discovery of numerous proteins with antibiotic qualities.
Once identified in the DNA sequences examined, his lab worked to synthesize these molecules, succeeding in “resurrecting” these long-vanished chemicals.
The team then applied these substances to pathogens in a lab dish and to mice, to see if, as the computational predictions said, each was effective against microbes.
The ones that worked, did pretty well. In two cases, the peptides were comparable to, if not better than, the drug used in standard treatment. The ones that didn’t work have helped researchers figure out what needs to be improved in their artificial intelligence programs.
“We believe that this research opens the door to new ways of designing antibiotics and the discovery of other drugs,” explains De la Fuente.
De la Fuente, Maasch and their colleagues present the technical details of the concept of protein de-extinction, and its first practical results, in the academic journal Cell Host & Microbe, under the title “Molecular de-extinction of ancient antimicrobial peptides enabled by machine learning”. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
#Deextinguishing #proteins #create #antibiotics