A laboratory robot powered by artificial intelligence (AI) has discovered that a compound commonly found in toothpaste could be used to combat drug-resistant malaria parasites. Triclosan could be deployed against strains of plasmodium malaria parasites that have evolved resistance to the widely used drug pyrimethamine, according to the University of Cambridge.

A laboratory robot powered by artificial intelligence (AI) has discovered that a compound commonly found in toothpaste could be used to combat drug-resistant malaria parasites. Triclosan could be deployed against strains of plasmodium malaria parasites that have evolved resistance to the widely used drug pyrimethamine, according to the University of Cambridge. Pyrimethamine works by inhibiting a particular enzyme called DHFR and scientists have known for some time that triclosan can be employed to target another enzyme, ENR. The fast-moving AI routines of the robot "Eve", however, which formulate, test and re-evaluate hypotheses in quick succession, discovered that the common toothpaste chemical also attacks DHFR – even in parasites resistant to pyrimethamine. It has led researchers to hope that triclosan could be developed for use in a two-pronged attack on plasmodium in the liver and in the blood.