AI-generated nanoparticles prove capable of delivering modern medicines to diseased cells

New research from Cardiff University, in collaboration with Astra Zeneca, used artificial intelligence to create microscopic particles that can effectively transport medicines to precisely target and treat diseased cells.

The team say their work has potential future applications in treating genetic diseases and cancer as well as infectious disease.

This collaborative study used AI to design a bespoke nanoparticle to deliver a drug molecule, called mRNA, to cancer cells. This AI-designed nanoparticle was then proven to be more effective as a delivery shuttle compared with other prototypes.

This research showed that machine learning and artificial intelligence can form an integral part of the design process for constructing more effective nano therapeutics.

"While the nanoparticle generated through this study was within a narrow field of biomedical research, the new technique – based on computational learning and subsequent design of a new nanoparticle shuttle – was proven to be effective. This means this new technique could be used to analyze and design thousands of different types of nanoparticles and deliver hundreds of different types of therapeutic molecules to target a very wide range of diseases."

Image source: Hunter et al. (2023), Small Methods.