Repurposing Drugs for Viral Hepatitis Using Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Hepatitis refers to the inflammation of the liver caused by viruses and non-infectious agents leading to severe liver damage and cancer, eventually leading to death. There are 5 strains: A, B, C, D and E. Globally, HBV is the most widespread chronic variant and is the leading cause of death globally, resulting in an estimated 820,000 deaths per year. Regionally (Acute cases in North India), HEV was the most prevalent identifiable cause for in 26% of the cases. Lastly, the most severe clinical form would be; HDV co-infection which mostly occurs in people already infected with HBV. While new drugs are being discovered through extensive research and experiments, it is possible to repurpose existing drugs to a new target shaving off significant time duration. This article reviews a plethora of scientific articles regarding this repurposing of already existing drugs to treat hepatitis through AI. Artificial Intelligence is ubiquitous and used across the entire spectrum of viral hepatitis management as it improves diagnostic speed and accuracy by identifying complex patterns in large datasets that include serological, genomic and imaging data. Modern repurposing relies on two primary systematic approaches: High-throughput experimental screening and In Silico approaches. The latter makes use of Machine Learning, Molecular docking and Network Pharmacology and the results has been promising.