Artificial Intelligence-Based Data-Driven Strategy to Accelerate Research, Development, and Clinical Trials of COVID Vaccine

Abstract

The global COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, which was caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in a significant loss of human life around the world. The SARS-CoV-2 has caused significant problems to medical systems and healthcare facilities due to its unexpected global expansion. Despite all of the efforts, developing effective treatments, diagnostic techniques, and vaccinations for this unique virus is a top priority and takes a long time. However, the foremost step in vaccine development is to identify possible antigens for a vaccine. The traditional method was time taking, but after the breakthrough technology of reverse vaccinology (RV) was introduced in 2000, it drastically lowers the time needed to detect antigens ranging from 5-15 years to 1-2 years. The different RV tools work based on machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). Models based on AI and ML have shown promising solutions in accelerating the discovery and optimization of new antivirals or effective vaccine candidates. In the present scenario, AI has been extensively used for drug and vaccine research against SARS-COV-2 therapy discovery. This is more useful for the identification of potential existing drugs with inhibitory human coronavirus by using different datasets. The AI tools and computational approaches have led to speedy research and the development of a vaccine to fight against the coronavirus. Therefore, this paper suggests the role of artificial intelligence in the field of clinical trials of vaccines and clinical practices using different tools.

Figure 1

History and evolution of vaccine development by Hilleman.

Figure 2

Subbranches of artificial intelligence.

Figure 3

(a) Schematic representation of adaptive immunity targeting pathogen for killing. (b) Role of a vaccine in preventing the spread of a virus.

Figure 4

Process of vaccine discovery by AI/ML method.

Figure 5

AI-based vaccine development for COVID-19.

Figure 6

Benefits of employing computational methodologies in vaccine development. The bottom box outlines the points of view and issues raised at each stage of the proposed computational design tools. Processes connected with reverse vaccinology are shown in orange boxes at the bottom.