Importance of Artificial Intelligence Techniques to Combat COVID-19 Pandemic
Ashish P. Shah · Journal of Integrated Health Sciences · 2021
Worldwide, 26 million peoples are affected and 5 million deaths occur since December 2019. Over the last 2 years, different variants evolved due to mutation in the virus. The lacks of specificity of approved drugs and effectiveness of vaccines[1] are the challenges against the treatment of this disease. Until now, only a few drug molecules have been used for the treatment or undergone clinical trial, and these molecules are mostly repurposed approved drugs.[2] Artificial intelligence used in various computational techniques can help to predict biological activities and toxicity of drug molecules. Computational methods are helpful to minimize the time and cost of drug discovery process. Structure-based and ligand-based drug designs are the two major categories used for the discovery of novel drug molecules. Various computational like homology modeling, molecular docking studies, molecular dynamics study, quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR), and prediction of ADME/T properties have been extensively used in the search of potential candidates against the virus. Both ligand-based and structure-based drug design methods have been useful to find out best leads that are effective against the virus.[3] Researchers have worked extensively using different databases to find out potential candidates which may be effective against COVID-19.[4] An extensive study on various plants and its constituents have been also done to find out effective natural products against COVID-19.[5] Besides the advantages of computational methods, there are certain limitations related to computational method as lead molecules derived using computational methods need to be validated through preclinical and clinical studies before market approval. There are a number of examples reported, especially in the case of infectious disease where medical, paramedical, or cleaning staff gets infected as they are directly or indirectly involved with patients. After outbreak of Ebola 2015, it was discussed in the workshop organized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation that there are three major areas where robotic technology can provide an efficient solution in pandemic disease which includes clinical care, logistics, and quarantines. Development of robotic technology in the above area may provide benefits in the current situation of COVID-19. For the control of disease, disinfection of noncontact ultraviolet surfaces by robotic technology[6] can be very useful because COVID-19 spreads not only through person to person via close contact or respiratory droplets but also via contaminated surfaces. The contaminated surface includes metals, glass, or plastic where this pathogen can survive up to some days. New robotic technology can be useful for identification of high-risk areas and to sterilize surfaces where contamination may occur. For the diagnosis purpose like temperature measurement in public areas, in-out hospital patient development of thermal robotic system can be useful.[7] For the diagnosis of COVID-19, sample collection is done by nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs. This test requires skilled staff for collection of samples, handling, and testing. In this whole procedure, robotic technology may speed up the process and reduce the risk of the infection. Some people do not have symptoms, but they are vectors to spread this infection. In this case, blood test is important to identify infection. Automated blood collection and testing can reduce the risk of infection. In a nutshell, COVID-19 disease can be a catalyst for the development of robotic technology. However, this task is challenging as robotic system development requires social gathering of experts to develop such complex models.[8]