, certain medications, such as dextromethorphan, which is commonly used to treat coughs caused by colds and the flu, may be repurposed to aid individuals in quitting smoking. The researchers employed a cutting-edgeapproach, where computer algorithms scrutinize data sets to uncover patterns and trends, to identify the drugs that hold potential. Some of these drugs are already undergoing clinical trials.
Using genetic data from more than 1.3 million people, Dajiang Liu, Ph.D., professor of public health sciences, and of biochemistry and molecular biology and Bibo Jiang, Ph.D., assistant professor of public health sciences, co-led a large multi-institution study that used machine learning to study these large data sets — which include specific data about a person’s genetics and their self-reported smoking behaviors.
Most of the genetic data in the study is from people with European ancestries, so the machine learning model had to be tailored to not only study that data, but also a smaller data set of around 150,000 people with Asian, African, or American ancestries.