Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Model Medicines, a prominent company in the field of human health, specializing in AI-driven drug discovery, has released two significant preprint papers on bioRxiv, outlining major advancements in antiviral and oncology drug development.
The first preprint, titled "Discovery of RdRp Thumb-1 as a novel broad-spectrum antiviral target and MDL-001 as a potent inhibitor - Part I: Leveraging Bioinformatics and Deep Learning," showcases Model Medicines' use of their GALILEO AI platform to identify RdRp Thumb-1 as a promising target for broad-spectrum antivirals against RNA viruses. Through the application of bioinformatics and deep learning techniques, they identified MDL-001 as a potent oral antiviral targeting RdRp Thumb-1. Importantly, this research demonstrates how their AI approach overcame limitations of traditional screening methods, leading to the identification of MDL-001, which has shown strong antiviral activity in vitro and in vivo.
In the second preprint, "ChemPrint: Advancing Drug Discovery through AI," Model Medicines details their GALILEO AI platform and its ChemPrint deep learning model for predicting molecular properties. By incorporating adaptive molecular embeddings and rigorous model training, ChemPrint significantly outperformed conventional AI approaches. In a prospective study, ChemPrint achieved an impressive 45.5% hit rate in identifying novel inhibitors of AXL and BRD4, previously considered "undruggable" oncology targets. Importantly, the discovered compounds were chemically distinct from known inhibitors, showcasing ChemPrint's ability to explore novel chemical spaces effectively.
Dr. Daniel Haders, CEO and Founder of Model Medicines, expressed excitement about these findings, stating, "These preprints, coupled with our recent success in discovering new pan-antiviral compounds with a record-breaking 66.7% hit rate, mark a significant advancement in our AI-driven drug discovery efforts." He emphasized the potential of MDL-001 as a broad-spectrum oral antiviral and highlighted their platform's capacity to accelerate the development of transformative therapeutics for diseases with unmet medical needs.
Davey Smith, MD, MAS, FACP, FIDSA, Senior Clinical Advisor to Model Medicines, praised the discovery of MDL-001, noting its potential to revolutionize antiviral therapeutics and combat future pandemics effectively.
The preprints are now accessible on bioRxiv, with plans for publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at scientific conferences. These achievements follow Model Medicines' recent announcement of a remarkable 66.7% hit rate in discovering new chemical entities with pan-antiviral activity using their AI platform.
Source: prnewswire.com
