New drug compound prevents long COVID symptoms in mice

AI is moving so quickly that in the gap between answering this and publication, I could be proved wrong! With that caveat, there is a lot of hype around AI drug discovery campaigns. AI is certainly a substantial part of many discovery programs today and has been applied in drug discovery for many years. However, we need to be realistic about what AI is doing, where humans remain central, and how that balance may vary. AI agents are an area that has emerged relatively recently and continues to evolve quickly. They can complete tasks for example data extraction and reporting with guidance from experts, helping to generate larger, more standardized datasets over time. They can also help build closed-loop systems that connect computation and experiment directly, with strategic direction still coming from expert scientists. However, care and oversight is needed with these systems to validate their actions. I also think people often equate AI with generative AI, but there are many other AI systems which are underappreciated. For example, the GNN property prediction models and task-specific predictive tools we discussed earlier can be extremely valuable. Some of these methods receive less attention simply because they have already become familiar in drug discovery.

Algae are photosynthetic aquatic creatures that grow through the consumption of nutrients, light, and carbon dioxide. They are a diverse group of creatures that include tiny single-celled algae and enormous kelp, as well as seaweed 1. Numerous prokaryotic and eukaryotic algae species are desirable food sources for humans due to their inherent qualities 2,3. Human intake of macroalgae such as seaweed and microalgae like phytoplankton dates back many years. Multicellular macroscopic aquatic plants, or macroalgae, are classified into three taxa: Phaeophyceae, or brown algae, Rhodophyta or red algae, and Chlorophyta or green algae. Microalgae, the unicellular counterpart of macroalgae, are categorized in a broader framework that includes prokaryotic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), Euglenophyta, and Chlorophyta, which are genetically distinct from one another. The ancient populations of Chad and the Aztec culture were already familiar with the cyanobacteria spirulina, which is currently advertised as a superfood in the West 4. In Burma, Vietnam, and India, other cyanobacteria/microalgae, like Spirogyra and Oedogonium, were eaten as food or as a supplement 4. Seaweed is a staple of daily meals in many Asian and Pacific civilizations, including Korea, Japan, and Indonesia, as well as Hawaii and New Zealand 5.

Picking the right target is absolutely fundamental. I mentioned that over half of failures of new medicines in development are due to us picking the wrong target. Even if we just doubled our success rate at picking the right target, it would have a huge impact on the development of new medicines for people. One of the reasons, and why I think artificial intelligence could be really important in helping us do that, is that, quite often, there may be some data buried in the literature that tells us a target is really good. Equally valuable is the fact that there may be something buried in the literature that tells you a target is not good. It's much harder to publish negative data than positive data. That target invalidation can be just as valuable as a target validation. It's really about being able to tap into all that knowledge and look up all the facts. That would mean that our systems and other people's AI systems can really be much more effective at picking the right target.

There are no targeted treatments approved for pancreas cancer, and we haven't had any significant progress for a long time. We've only come up with different chemotherapy combinations, and those are only moderately effective. This new treatment is staggeringly better than chemotherapy. Usually, when we think of an improvement in pancreatic cancer survival, we think of 25% improvement. This medication actually doubled survival in patients with advanced disease. We have patients who participated in the trial who are still alive, which is unheard of because the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer patients is only 13%-14%. If the drug is approved by the FDA, it will most likely become the new standard of care for advanced pancreatic cancer and could replace chemotherapy as a first-line treatment.

Biologically, vitamins are absorbed within hours and have instant metabolic effects, such as antioxidants that protect cells or compounds that are building blocks for making hormones. But, many factors impact their efficiency and could keep your body from fully absorbing them. Absorption and effects depend on each individual and what combination of vitamins they take. Gender, age, digestive health, medical conditions, and diet all play a role. One helpful practice to detect deficiencies is to look for the symptoms deficiencies create. Then, look for improvement in your symptoms with supplement intake. You are unlikely to see or feel changes if you do not lack nutrients. If you are chronically tired or see signs of unhealthy nails, hair, or skin, supplements may help as these are indicators that you are lacking nutrients in your diet. If you are unsure, your doctor can order tests to check for deficiencies in your blood.