ageing-paper.pdf (522.54 kB)
Machine learning for predicting lifespan-extending chemical compounds
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 09:04 authored by Diogo G Barardo, Danielle Newby, Daniel Thornton, Taravat Ghafourian, João Pedro de Magalhães, Alex A FreitasIncreasing age is a risk factor for many diseases; therefore developing pharmacological interventions that slow down ageing and consequently postpone the onset of many age-related diseases is highly desirable. In this work we analyse data from the DrugAge database, which contains chemical compounds and their effect on the lifespan of model organisms. Predictive models were built using the machine learning method random forests to predict whether or not a chemical compound will increase Caenorhabditis elegans’ lifespan, using as features Gene Ontology (GO) terms annotated for proteins targeted by the compounds and chemical descriptors calculated from each compound’s chemical structure. The model with the best predictive accuracy used both biological and chemical features, achieving a prediction accuracy of 80%. The top 20 most important GO terms include those related to mitochondrial processes, to enzymatic and immunological processes, and terms related to metabolic and transport processes. We applied our best model to predict compounds which are more likely to increase C. elegans’ lifespan in the DGIdb database, where the effect of the compounds on an organism’s lifespan is unknown. The top hit compounds can be broadly divided into four groups: compounds affecting mitochondria, compounds for cancer treatment, anti-inflammatories, and compounds for gonadotropin- releasing hormone therapies.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
AgingISSN
1945-4589Publisher
Impact JournalsExternal DOI
Issue
7Volume
9Page range
1721-1737Department affiliated with
- Biochemistry Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes