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UP researchers use AI models to predict antimicrobial resistance

Researchers from the University of the Philippines have tapped artificial intelligence to predict antimicrobial resistance, particularly in agricultural environments. UP researchers used Escherichia coli (E. coli) for testing antimicrobial resistance since it can easily develop resistance to antibiotics. E. coli is a common bacterium that inhabits the intestines of animals and humans and is often used to identify fecal contamination. UP researchers tested AI prediction models to determine the antimicrobial resistance of E. coli using genetic data and laboratory test results from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database. These AI models are Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and two ensemble methods—Adaptive Boosting (AB) and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB). 'We selected the models based on their strengths in handling biological and imbalanced data,' said Dr. Pierangeli Vital of UP Diliman College of Science's Natural Sciences Research Institute. 'These models were chosen to compare performance across different learning strategies and to identify which is most suitable for predicting antibiotic resistance,' she added. The study showed that the AI models most accurately predicted resistance to streptomycin and tetracycline, both types of antibiotics. However, ciprofloxacin, another type of antibiotic, was the most challenging to predict due to the limited number of resistant samples in the data (only 4%), which led to difficulty in identifying resistance and poor sensitivity. The study noted that AB and XGB consistently delivered good results, even when tested on imbalanced antimicrobial resistance data. 'We think that this strategy has great potential for real-time monitoring of antimicrobial resistance, particularly in agriculture,' Vital said. 'As DNA sequencing becomes faster and cheaper, prediction models such as ours can pick up resistant bacteria early—before they lead to outbreaks. This can facilitate better decision-making in food safety, agriculture, and public health programs,' she added. The researchers recommend including more diverse sample types and data sources to better understand and predict how bacteria develop resistance. The study titled 'Prediction models for the antimicrobial resistance of Escherichia coli in an agricultural setting around Metro Manila, Philippines' was published in the Malaysian Journal of Microbiology. —VBL, GMA Integrated News