Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute used artificial intelligence models and machine learning algorithms to determine which amino acid components that make up therapeutic proteins can safely deliver therapeutics to animal eye cells. It is said that it succeeded in predicting whether the sex is the highest.
A joint project with researchers at the University of Maryland, the project aims to make common chronic blinding eye diseases, such as glaucoma and macular degeneration, more tolerable, which affect nearly 20 million people in the United States. We can expect advances in new drug treatments with high Each. Current drug therapy for these diseases, which consists of multiple daily eye drops or frequent eye injections, is effective, but such delivery systems can be difficult to sustain and tolerate over the long term. , scientific efforts to develop delivery systems that bind to eye components are encouraged. It activates cells and safely extends the therapeutic effects of cell-borne drugs.
In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration approved an implantable device that can be placed in the eye to release glaucoma medication. Although the device worked longer than eye drops or injections, long-term use can cause eye cell death, forcing patients to return to eye drops and injections.
The new study, published May 2 in Nature Communications, shows that an artificial intelligence-designed model binds to specific chemicals in rabbit eye cells to safely administer drugs, peptides or small molecules. It has been shown to accurately predict valid sequences of amino acids, also known as proteins. It takes only a few weeks, reducing the need for frequent and rigid treatment schedules. The research team specifically studied peptides that bind to melanin, the compound that gives the eye its color, which has the advantage of being widely present throughout the specialized structures of the cells of the eye.
Other studies investigating drug delivery using peptides have shown how effective this system is, but the research team wanted to find peptides that strongly bind to widespread ophthalmic compounds. He pointed out that he was thinking To that end, the research team believes that rapid machine learning using artificial intelligence techniques can be used as an effective peptide sequence classification and testing method, according to Dr. Laura Ensign, professor of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University, Marcella E. Wal. They reasoned that it could be useful for prediction. Professor of University Medicine and co-corresponding author of the paper.
The team started by feeding machine learning models with thousands of data points, including amino acid and peptide sequence features. These data helped computer models “learn” the chemical and binding properties of specific amino acid combinations and, in time, learned to predict candidate peptide sequences for drug delivery using melanin. .
An artificial intelligence model generated 127 peptides predicted to have varying abilities to penetrate specialized melanin-housing cells, bind to melanin, and be non-toxic to the cell. Of these 127 peptides, the model predicted the peptide called HR97 to have the highest binding success rate. The research team also confirmed the properties of these peptides, including good cellular uptake and binding, and no signs of cell death.
To test the model’s predictions, the researchers conjugated HR97 to brimonidine, a drug used to treat glaucoma by lowering intraocular pressure, and injected it into the eyes of adult rabbits. To determine the performance of HR97, the researchers measured levels of brimonidine in ocular cells by examining drug concentration in cells after administration of an experimental drug delivery system. They found that large amounts of brimonidine were present for up to a month. This indicates that HR97 successfully penetrated the cells, bound to melanin and released the drug over a longer period of time. The researchers also confirmed that the intraocular pressure-lowering effect of brimonidine bound to HR97 lasted up to 18 days and showed no signs of irritation in the eyes of rabbits.
Future studies using artificial intelligence to predict peptides for drug delivery could have profound implications for other conditions involving melanin, Ensign said, targeting other specialized structures. It states that it can also be extended to
“We believe we are on our way to finding solutions that improve patient care and quality of life using drug delivery systems. It’s about creating things that can improve lives,” says Ensign.
In the future, researchers will need to extend the duration of action even further, test the AI model’s success in predicting drug delivery with other drugs, and find ways to determine its safety in humans, Ensign said. .
Other researchers participating in this study are Henry Hsueh, Usha Rai, Watsala Liyanage, Yoo Chun Kim, Matthew Appell, Jahnavi Pejavar, Kirby Leo, Charlotte Davison, Patricia Kolodziejski, Ann Mozzer, HyeYoung Kwon, Maanasa Sista, Sri Vishnu Kiran Rompiccharla, Malia. Edwards, Ian Pisa, and Justin Haynes from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Nicole Anders and Avelina Hemingway of Johns Hopkins University Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Lenny Ti Chou and Michael Cummings of the University of Maryland.
This research was supported by funding from the NIH (R01EY026578, R01EY031041, P30CA006973 and S10OD020091), the Robert H. Smith Family Foundation, the Marcella E. Wall and Maryland E-Innovation Initiative Fund, and the Marcella E. Wall Professorship in Ophthalmology. was established. Research to Prevent Blindness, National Eye Institute Training Grant (T32EY007143), National Science Foundation Award (DGE-1632976), National Center for Advancement of Translational Science Grant (UL1TR001079).
