Discovery of new antiviral agents through artificial intelligence: In vitro and in vivo results

Abstract

In this research, we employed a deep reinforcement learning (RL)-based molecule design platform to generate a diverse set of compounds targeting the neuraminidase (NA) of influenza A and B viruses. A total of 60,291 compounds were generated, of which 86.5 % displayed superior physicochemical properties compared to oseltamivir. After narrowing down the selection through computational filters, nine compounds with non-sialic acid-like structures were selected for in vitro experiments. We identified two compounds, DS-22-inf-009 and DS-22-inf-021 that effectively inhibited the NAs of both influenza A and B viruses (IAV and IBV), including H275Y mutant strains at low micromolar concentrations. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed a similar pattern of interaction with amino acid residues as oseltamivir. In cell-based assays, DS-22-inf-009 and DS-22-inf-021 inhibited IAV and IBV in a dose-dependent manner with EC₅₀ values ranging from 0.29 μM to 2.31 μM. Furthermore, animal experiments showed that both DS-22-inf-009 and DS-22-inf-021 exerted antiviral activity in mice, conferring 65 % and 85 % protection from IAV (H1N1 pdm09), and 65 % and 100 % protection from IBV (Yamagata lineage), respectively. Thus, these findings demonstrate the potential of RL to generate compounds with promising antiviral properties.

Keywords: Influenza; Neuraminidase inhibitor; Oseltamivir; Reinforcement learning.