One of the biggest challenges posed by Zika is that it mutates rapidly, giving it the power to resist vaccines and possibly any other pharmaceutical weapons that may be aimed at the wily virus. But can computer science help outsmart Zika? The brains at
IBM announced today that it has identified a “macromolecule”—essentially a multi-pronged chemical construct, designed from the ground up by bioengineers—that may be able to cripple the ability of many types of viruses from becoming resistant to drugs. The molecule was developed and tested by IBM Research in conjunction with Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), which formed a research partnership with the tech giant 12 years ago.
“All the technology we develop for semiconductors is directly transportable into medicine,” says James Hedrick, lead researcher for advanced organic materials at IBM Research in San Jose, CA. “How we make polymers, how we nano-construct materials—it is a perfect entryway.” IBM and IBN have been working together on several pursuits, including drug delivery, gene delivery and infectious disease control, he says.
The new macromolecule employs three weapons to fight off viruses. One component of it uses electrostatic bonds to lock onto the virus and prevent it from infecting healthy cells. A second neutralizes the acidity levels inside virus cells, making it difficult for them to replicate. Finally, the molecule contains a type of sugar called mannose, which binds to healthy cells in the immune system and draws them to the virus so they can fight it off more effectively.
In the lab, the engineered molecule was effective against several types of viruses, including Ebola, dengue and herpes simplex. The scientists did not observe signs of resistance, which was key because they designed it specifically to interrupt the viral process independent of what mutations the virus takes on over time. The IBM/IBN team published their results in a recent edition of the journal Macromolecules.
“There are so many viruses, and they’re very complex. They often possess this unstable genome that allows them to mutate very quickly,” Hedrick says. “So you can’t design a drug for each and every virus. We looked at this in a broader way, realizing that viruses have [electrical] charges on their surfaces. We thought that might be a really good way to start—by targeting the surfaces of viruses.”
Of course, the most pressing concern is Zika, which has sparked a worldwide panic because of its link to birth defects. IBM and IBN did not test their macromolecule on the virus—it had not yet emerged as a threat when they were doing the research—but they are confident it may prove useful in fighting the outbreak. That’s because Zika is similar to dengue 2, one of the four serotypes of the virus, says Hedrick, who adds that IBM is currently looking for a collaboration partner such as a pharmaceutical company to apply the new technology to a Zika treatment or vaccine.
A further assist in IBM’s virus-fighting venture could come from Watson—the computerized super-brain that the company has employed for a variety of data-processing applications ever since it wowed game show fans by winning Jeopardy! in 2011. For example, scientists might use a product called Watson Discovery Advisor to efficiently analyze data from clinical trials of the macromolecule. Or Watson could be used to quickly find the right patients for clinical trials. “Watson is going to play a very key role in helping us tune these strategies and make them more broadly applicable,” Hedrick says. “We’re just beginning to exploit data science and methods for drawing correlations between what we and others have done to develop more effective treatments.”
In the short term, IBM is looking at applying the new macromolecule technology to consumer products like anti-viral wipes or sprays. They could be useful in fighting highly contagious viruses like Ebola, Hedrick says. “If you have a number of Ebola patients in a hospital and you want to control the infection, you could fog the room with [the macromolecule] suspended in water, and it would bind with the virus to prevent further infections.”
