Will AI Bring New Medicines Against Heart Disease?

Given the transformational impact that artificial intelligence (AI) is having on science, medicine and beyond, we here consider the potential of AI for the discovery of new medicines against heart disease. We define AI broadly as the use of machine learning, including statistics and deep learning, to identify patterns in datasets that can be used to make predictions. Recent breakthroughs in the ability to consider very large amounts of data have spurred a boom in AI-driven drug discovery in both academia and industry. Many new companies already have drug pipelines extending into clinical trials, but these do not yet include drugs against heart disease. We here describe the use of AI for the discovery of low-molecular weight drugs and biologics, including therapeutic peptides, as well as for predicting effects such as cardiotoxicity. The concerted use of AI together with physics-based simulations and experimental feedback loops will be necessary to fully realize the potential of AI for drug discovery and the development of precision medicines for cardiac conditions.