Abstract

Background and Aim: This study aims at the advancement of extra-ordinary biomedical data (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, drug libraries, and patient care data), evolution of supercomputers, and continuous development of new algorithms that lead to a generous revolution in artificial intelligence (AI). Currently, many biotech and pharmaceutical companies made reasonable investments in and have co-operation with AI companies increasing the chance of better healthcare tools development, includes biomarker and drug target identification, designing a new class of drugs and drug repurposing. Thus, the study is intended to project the pros and cons of AI in the application of drug repositioning.

Methods: Using the search term “AI” and “drug repurposing” the relevant literature retrieved and reviewed from different sources includes PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus.

Results: Drug discovery is a lengthy process; however, leveraging the AI approaches in drug repurposing via quick virtual screening may enhance and speed-up the identification of potential drug candidates against communicable and non-communicable diseases. Therefore, in this mini-review, we have discussed different algorithms, tools and techniques, advantages, limitations on predicting the target in repurposing a drug.

Conclusions: AI technology in drug repurposing with the association of pharmacology can efficiently identify drug candidates against pandemic diseases.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; convolutional neural networks; deep learning; DrugBank; drug repurposing; machine learning;recurrent neural networks.

Graphical Abstract