Recent advances in artificial intelligence have enabled Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to identify nearly 20 antiviral compounds that have the potential to treat the rare Ebola virus (Bundibugyo virus) currently affecting the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to the World Health Organization, there are 516 suspected and 33 confirmed cases of Bundibugyo Ebola virus infection, and 133 deaths. Bundibugyo virus, named after the region of Uganda where the strain was first identified in 2007, kills up to 40% of those infected.
“As medical professionals around the world respond to the latest epidemic, we stand ready to support the biomedical community in rapid research and development of antiviral drugs,” said Dr. Jonathan Bowman, lead developer of SwRI’s Rhodium™ molecular docking software, designed to virtually screen drug compounds. “Our AI and machine learning tools can help rapidly identify drug candidates that are most likely to work not only in high-value biocontainment environments, but also within the human body.”
SwRI’s research is part of a 10-year collaboration with the Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas BioMed), where SwRI designs and formulates vaccine and antiviral drug candidates, and Texas BioMed tests them on live viruses in its state-of-the-art Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4) laboratory.
The current Ebola virus outbreak is a stark reminder that biomedical research is not only a public health priority, but also a matter of national and global security. Continued investment in infectious disease research, along with the development of vaccines and treatments, is essential to ensure we are prepared to stop infectious disease outbreaks before they become a broader global threat. ”
Larry Schlesinger, President and CEO of Texas Biomed
Ebola virus is rare, but occurs occasionally in equatorial Africa, but is often associated with native fruit bats. Although there are several antiviral treatments for other virus species, there are no drugs approved for Bundibugyo Ebola virus. SwRI and Texas Biomed began collaborating on Ebola virus research in 2016 with a contract from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to combine two available drugs to test a combination drug therapy against the Ebola virus. Over the past two years, Texas Biomed has collaborated with SwRI to test the small molecule “M7,” a potent inhibitor of another species, the Zaire Ebola virus. M7 is a host-directed antiviral drug and should work against more types of viruses than the more common direct-acting antivirals.
Although the M7 compound showed promise in Texas Biomed’s laboratory tests, it did not have the right properties to scale up as an approved drug for manufacturing, Bowman said. However, SwRI recently conducted an internally funded study to identify more than 20 related compounds with more stable properties, using SwRI-developed Rhodium software in conjunction with the Large-Scale Language Model (LLM) AI tool.
“Our internally funded R&D investments allow us to launch research projects like this one quickly, speeding the process of getting useful treatments where they are needed as quickly as possible,” said Adam Hamilton, President and CEO of SwRI.
This project, known as the Generative Approaches for Molecular Encodings (GAMES) LLM, generates Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System (SMILES) strings. SMILES is an industry standard system that uses a series of short text characters to represent the structure of molecules for ease of storage, retrieval, and modeling.
An AI-driven approach using the GAMES language model developed by SwRI prioritized the selection of precursors to rapidly synthesize 18 novel analogs for screening Bundibugyo species. The team considered supply chains and focused on domestic sources of building block precursors to facilitate rapid response. Texas Biomed plans to test the compound in the coming weeks.
“Now that SwRI has identified more of these meaningful compounds, we can now test against the latest viruses and provide rapid results,” said Dr. Olena Shtanko, a virologist at Texas Biomed. “The impact of this research is critical and we want to support the research community through trusted collaboration.”
SwRI and Texas Biomed are independent nonprofit organizations based in San Antonio, Texas, a hub of biomedical innovation. SwRI performs applied research and development across multiple technology fields and industry applications. Texas Biomed is dedicated to protecting the global community from infectious diseases and has long been at the forefront of Ebola virus research, helping to advance critical countermeasures against one of the world’s deadliest pathogens.
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Southwest Research Institute
