Advancing Drug–Drug Interaction Prediction with Biomimetic Improvements: Leveraging the Latest Artificial Intelligence Techniques to Guide Researchers in the Field

Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) can cause adverse reactions or reduce the efficiency of a drug. Using computers to predict DDIs is now critical in pharmacology, as this reduces risks, improves drug outcomes and lowers healthcare costs. Clinical trials are slow, expensive, and require a lot of effort. The use of artificial intelligence (AI), primarily in the form of machine learning (ML) and its subfield deep learning (DL), has made DDI prediction more accurate and efficient when handling large datasets from biological, chemical, and clinical domains. Many ML and DL approaches are bio-inspired, taking inspiration from natural systems, and are considered part of the broader class of biomimetic methods. This review provides a comprehensive overview of AI-based methods currently used for DDI prediction. These include classical ML algorithms, such as logistic regression (LR) and support vector machines (SVMs); advanced DL models, such as deep neural networks (DNNs) and long short-term memory networks (LSTMs); graph-based models, such as graph convolutional networks (GCNs) and graph attention networks (GATs); and ensemble techniques. The use of knowledge graphs and transformers to capture relations and meaningful data about drugs is also investigated. Additionally, emerging biomimetic approaches offer promising directions for the future in designing AI models that can emulate the complexity of pharmacological interactions. These upgrades include using genetic algorithms with LR and SVM, neuroevaluation (brain-inspired model optimization) to improve DNN and LSTM architectures, ant-colony-inspired path exploration with GCN and GAT, and immune-inspired attention mechanisms in transformer models. This manuscript reviews the typical types of data employed in DDI (pDDI) prediction studies and the evaluation methods employed, discussing the pros and cons of each. There are useful approaches outlined that reveal important points that require further research and suggest ways to improve the accuracy, usability, and understanding of DDI prediction models.