AI examines African natural remedies for drug research

Artificial intelligence (AI) and traditional medicine may seem like a strange combination at first glance, but African researchers are using both to advance drug research on the continent.

Fidele Ntie-Kang, associate professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Buea in Cameroon, is leading efforts to develop new medicines from Africa's rich natural biodiversity, using artificial intelligence to screen hundreds of natural compounds.

In this interview with SciDev.Net, he talks about the limitations of conducting research in Africa and how his team of researchers is overcoming them to find indigenous solutions to the world's neglected diseases.

Can you tell us how you got into drug research?

Growing up in Cameroon, I suffered frequently from malaria, and I vividly remember my father rushing to get antimalarial drugs like Fansidar. While studying chemistry, my interest in natural remedies – sparked by a high school experience with a doctor who taught us about the medicinal plants around our campus – evolved into a passion for finding less toxic treatments from Africa's own natural resources.

What is the importance of natural medicinal plants in Africa?

Traditional medicine plays a crucial role in Africa. More than 80% of the population relies on it. Africa is home to over 40,000 unique plant species, which account for about 25% of the world's plant genetic resources. Of these, more than 5,000 plants are used in traditional African medicine. These natural remedies are not just folklore; many contain unique molecules that are used successfully in modern medicine, such as quinine for malaria and salicylic acid for aspirin.

What is the current state of research on African medicinal plants?

Although the efficacy of some of these plants is known, there has been little systematic research into them by pharmaceutical researchers. Most of the medicinal properties of these plants have not been isolated or studied, and there are very few molecules from African natural products being developed into medicines. Yohimbine, extracted from the bark of the African tree Pausinystalia johimbe, is one example that has been marketed as a dietary supplement, despite safety concerns.

What are the challenges in drug research from African natural products?

Drug discovery has always been a complex, expensive and time-consuming process, which has led to limited investment in research into natural products from Africa. In addition, there are infrastructural challenges such as frequent power outages, which we had to overcome by installing solar panels to ensure continuity of research.

As scientific research into African natural products remains largely untapped, knowledge sharing and capacity development are critical to rapid progress in this field. Yet visa regulations and requirements in the West make it difficult for African scientists and students to access training opportunities abroad and collaborate with international partners.

These challenges have highlighted the need to build our online natural compounds database and ensure that it remains accessible to researchers across the continent.

Even basic resources for research can be hard to come by. Reagents can take weeks or months to arrive from Europe, where they can be ordered online and delivered within days at a much lower cost.

There are also reservations about linking African natural products with pharmaceutical drug development. It is an uphill battle to convince potential partners and funders that Africa can have its own drug discovery centers and deliver cutting-edge research. But we are overcoming this obstacle – by demonstrating our potential and publishing in influential journals.

How is AI changing drug research in Africa?

AI is changing this calculation. Traditional drug discovery involves understanding the structure of proteins in the human body or in a pathogen and carefully identifying molecules that can bind or interact with them in a desired way. Machine learning and AI allow us to dramatically shorten this process.

The old approach of using physics-based methods, virtually screening millions of compounds to find a molecule with the right interaction with the drug target, can take weeks or months. With AI, we are able to screen millions of molecules in less than a day.

My research team at the University of Buea in Cameroon is building a state-of-the-art regional drug discovery center that will screen and use 400 natural compounds from the continent to identify new antiviral drugs.

Using AI-powered techniques and in collaboration with an international, interdisciplinary team of biologists, chemists, geneticists and computer scientists, we apply innovative screening techniques to identify natural compounds that may contain treatments for viral diseases such as COVID-19 and HIV.

What are you doing to support drug research across Africa?

We are building an online database of compounds found in African natural products: fungi, plants, corals and bacteria. These compounds can be accessed by researchers across the continent looking for molecules that could be used to treat many diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, including those that have been neglected by the global pharmaceutical industry in the past. These diseases include chikungunya, trypanosomiasis, rabies and schistosomiasis.

This online platform does not require a login, so our staff, employees and trainees can access all data, including free online tutorials, and aims to help find treatments for diseases that have been neglected by the global pharmaceutical industry.

What broader impact does your work have on Africa?

By harnessing our own natural and human resources and applying new technologies such as AI, we can develop our own solutions to our health problems. We are laying the foundation for Africa's wealth of natural herbal medicine to be fully exploited to meet our health needs, and we are proving that Africa can lead the way in the discovery of cutting-edge medicines.

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