Infection with the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus has rapidly become a global pandemic for which we were not prepared. Several clinical trials using previously approved drugs and drug combinations are urgently under way to improve the current situation. A vaccine option has only recently become available, but worldwide distribution is still a challenge. It is imperative that, for future viral pandemic preparedness, we have a rapid screening technology for drug discovery and repurposing. The primary purpose of this research project was to evaluate the DeepNEU stem‐cell based platform by creating and validating computer simulations of artificial lung cells infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 to enable the rapid identification of antiviral therapeutic targets and drug repurposing. The data generated from this project indicate that (a) human alveolar type lung cells can be simulated by DeepNEU (v5.0), (b) these simulated cells can then be infected with simulated SARS‐CoV‐2 virus, (c) the unsupervised learning system performed well in all simulations based on available published wet lab data, and (d) the platform identified potentially effective anti‐SARS‐CoV2 combinations of known drugs for urgent clinical study. The data also suggest that DeepNEU can identify potential therapeutic targets for expedited vaccine development. We conclude that based on published data plus current DeepNEU results, continued development of the DeepNEU platform will improve our preparedness for and response to future viral outbreaks. This can be achieved through rapid identification of potential therapeutic options for clinical testing as soon as the viral genome has been confirmed.

中文翻译：

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病毒大流行防范：基于多能干细胞的机器学习平台，用于模拟 SARS-CoV-2 感染以实现药物发现和再利用

SARS-CoV-2 病毒感染已迅速成为我们没有做好准备的全球流行病。使用先前批准的药物和药物组合的几项临床试验正在紧急进行，以改善目前的情况。疫苗选择最近才出现，但在全球范围内分发仍然是一个挑战。为了应对未来的病毒大流行，我们必须拥有用于药物发现和再利用的快速筛选技术。该研究项目的主要目的是通过创建和验证感染 SARS-CoV-2 的人工肺细胞的计算机模拟来评估基于 DeepNEU 干细胞的平台，从而能够快速识别抗病毒治疗靶点和药物再利用。该项目产生的数据表明（a）DeepNEU（v5.0）可以模拟人类肺泡型肺细胞，（b）这些模拟细胞可以被模拟的 SARS-CoV-2 病毒感染，（c）无监督学习系统基于可用的已发布湿实验室数据在所有模拟中表现良好，并且（d）该平台确定了用于紧急临床研究的已知药物的潜在有效抗 SARS-CoV2 组合。数据还表明，DeepNEU 可以为加快疫苗开发确定潜在的治疗靶点。我们得出结论，基于已发布的数据和当前 DeepNEU 结果，DeepNEU 平台的持续开发将提高我们对未来病毒爆发的准备和响应。