Researchers have created a strategy based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) that quickly identifies currently available medications or drugs that could handle Alzheimer's disease.

The technique might possibly represent an inexpensive and rapid way to repurpose pre-existing therapies into new treatments just for this progressive, debilitating neurodegenerative problem. Importantly, it might also help reveal brand new, unexplored targets for treatment by aiming at systems of drug action.

"Repurposing FDA-approved medicines for Alzheimer's disease is an attractive idea that may help hasten the arrival of effective treatment - but unfortunately, quite possibly for previously approved drugs, clinical trials require considerable online resources, making it not possible to assess every drug in patients with Alzheimer's disease," stated researcher Artem Sokolov from Harvard Medical School.

"We, therefore, made a framework for prioritizing prescription drugs, assisting clinical scientific studies to concentrate on probably the most promising ones," Sokolov included.

For the analysis, published in Nature Communications, the team described the framework, referred to as DRIAD (Drug Repurposing In Alzheimer's Disease), that is based on machine learning - a department of man-made intelligence whereby systems are "trained" on a large amount of data, "learn" to determine telltale patterns and augment researchers' and even clinicians' decision making.

DRIAD works by measuring what goes on to human mind neural cells when treated with a drug.

The strategy then determines whether the modifications caused by a drug correlate with molecular markers of disease severity.

The strategy even allowed the researchers to find medications that had protective and damaging consequences on brain cells.

The team applied the screening way to 80 FDA-approved and clinically tested drugs for a wide range of problems. The evaluation yielded a ranked list of candidates, with a number of anti-inflammatory medicines used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and blood cancers emerging as best contenders.

These medications belong to a category of medicines referred to as Janus kinase inhibitors. The medications work by blocking the activity of inflammation fueling Janus kinase proteins, suspected to enjoy a job in Alzheimer's illness and recognized for their role in autoimmune conditions. The crew's analyses also pointed to various other potential therapeutic targets for further exploration.