Cited by 202Machine Learning in BioinformaticsProtein Structure and DynamicsGenomics and Rare Diseases

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 40 of the 40 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 16 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

MutaBind2: Predicting the Impacts of Single and Multiple Mutations on Protein-Protein Interactions

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Abstract

Missense mutations may affect proteostasis by destabilizing or over-stabilizing protein complexes and changing the pathway flux. Predicting the effects of stabilizing mutations on protein-protein interactions is notoriously difficult because existing experimental sets are skewed toward mutations reducing protein-protein binding affinity and many computational methods fail to correctly evaluate their effects. To address this issue, we developed a method MutaBind2, which estimates the impacts of single as well as multiple mutations on protein-protein interactions. MutaBind2 employs only seven features, and the most important of them describe interactions of proteins with the solvent, evolutionary conservation of the site, and thermodynamic stability of the complex and each monomer. This approach shows a distinct improvement especially in evaluating the effects of mutations increasing binding affinity. MutaBind2 can be used for finding disease driver mutations, designing stable protein complexes, and discovering new protein-protein interaction inhibitors.

Overview

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TL;DR

MutaBind2 is a structure-based method that predicts the effects of single and multiple mutations on protein-protein binding affinity using a seven-term scoring function. It improves performance especially for mutations that increase binding affinity, while requiring a 3D structure of the protein-protein complex.

Key findings

  • MutaBind2 uses only seven features, with the most important describing protein-solvent interactions, evolutionary conservation of the site, and thermodynamic stability of the complex and each monomer.
  • In cross-validation, MutaBind2 achieved Pearson R = 0.76 for single mutations and R = 0.74 for multiple mutations under leave-one-complex-out (CV4); under leave-one-binding-site-out (CV5), R = 0.69 for single and R = 0.71 for multiple mutations.
  • On the independent S1748 set, retraining on the SKEMPI set enriched with reverse mutations improved R from 0.38 to 0.63 and reduced RMSE from 1.51 to 1.25 kcal mol−1; for highly increasing mutations, MutaBind2 reached AUC = 0.86 versus MutaBind 0.65, BeAtMuSiC 0.56, and FoldX 0.74.
  • For multiple mutations, the worst performance was for three or more mutations on the same chain (R = 0.61 in CV4), and the best was for double mutations on multiple chains (R = 0.85 in CV4).

Methods

  • MutaBind2 employs a new minimization protocol and a scoring function with seven terms, trained on a larger SKEMPI2 dataset containing 1.7 times more mutations and 3.3 times more complexes than SKEMPI, and enriched with structural models of reverse mutations to balance mutations increasing binding affinity.
  • Performance was assessed with five cross-validation procedures (CV1–CV5), independent test sets including S1748, S4191, M1707, S487, and S8338, and comparisons with BeAtMuSiC, FoldX, iSEE, and mCSM-PPI2.
  • The paper also evaluated predictions against yeast two-hybrid data covering 4,797 mutation-interaction pairs, of which 451 mutations could be mapped to known 3D structures and 147 were interaction-disruptive; main metrics included Pearson R, RMSE, slope, ROC/AUC, MCC, sensitivity, and specificity.

Limitations

  • Stated: MutaBind2 requires the 3D structure of a protein-protein complex; six of seven features are calculated from that structure, limiting application to mutations that cannot be mapped to a structural complex.
  • Stated: multiple-mutation instances with more than 10 mutations are not supported because such cases are rare in the training data and prediction accuracy is low.
  • Evident from the text: outliers are more likely in complexes with higher protein-protein binding affinity and at mutated sites with more hydrogen bonds, and performance improves significantly after removing 5% outliers.

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Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.isci.2020.100939

Cites

40 of 40 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

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Figures

Graphical abstract
Graphical abstract CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Figure 1 Pearson Correlation Coefficients between Experimental and Calculated ΔΔG for Three Types of Cross-Validation Tests on the S4191 (Single Mutations) and M1707 (Multiple Mutations) Sets See also Table S1.
Figure 1 Pearson Correlation Coefficients between Experimental and Calculated ΔΔG for Three Types of Cross-Validation Tests on the S4191 (Single Mutations) and M1707 (Multiple Mutations) Sets See also Table S1.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Figure 2 Experimental and Predicted Values of Changes in Binding Affinity for All Mutations in the S4191 (Single Mutations) and M1707 (Multiple Mutations) Sets Using “Leave-One-Complex-Out” (CV4) Cross-Validation See also Table S1.
Figure 2 Experimental and Predicted Values of Changes in Binding Affinity for All Mutations in the S4191 (Single Mutations) and M1707 (Multiple Mutations) Sets Using “Leave-One-Complex-Out” (CV4) Cross-Validation See also Table S1.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Figure 3 Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves for Predicting Mutations Disrupting Protein-Protein Interactions Using Different Methods As one mutation/interaction could be mapped to several Protein DataBank structures, the maximum predicted value of each method was used for each interaction-disruptive mutation and the minimum predicted values were used for those mutations that do not disrupt interactions. More details are shown in Figure S5.
Figure 3 Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves for Predicting Mutations Disrupting Protein-Protein Interactions Using Different Methods As one mutation/interaction could be mapped to several Protein DataBank structures, the maximum predicted value of each method was used for each interaction-disruptive mutation and the minimum predicted values were used for those mutations that do not disrupt interactions. More details are shown in Figure S5.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

Verification

Claims the paper makes

20 Own result · 10 Not checked yet · 3 No basis given · 2 Own interpretation

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Show all 21 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 14
14 of 14
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Proteins and their binding interfaces tend to be optimized in evolution with regard to their stability.

    “proteins and their binding interfaces tend to be optimized in evolution with regard to their stability”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The methodologies of training procedures employed by many computational methods rely on experimental sets enriched with mutations that decrease binding.

    “the methodologies of training procedures employed by many computational methods rely on these experimental sets”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Large-scale rapid experimental assays that would allow the assessment of thousands of variants are still limited.

    “large-scale rapid experimental assays that would allow the assessment of thousands of variants are still limited”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The majority of mutations produce rather subtle effects with unclear clinical significance.

    “the majority of mutations produce rather subtle effects with unclear clinical significance”
4 of 4

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Metadata

Authors
Zhang, N., Chen, Y., Lu, H., Zhao, F., Alvarez, R. V., Goncearenco, A., Panchenko, A. R., & Li, M.
Affiliations
  • Soochow University (CN)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
Corresponding author
  • Panchenko, Anna R.
  • Li, Minghui
Venue
iScience
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-03
Volume
23
Issue
3
Pages
100939
ISSN
2589-0042 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3007500173
Cited by
199
References
40
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 8
FWCI
8.68
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • iScience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Machine Learning in Bioinformatics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Structure and Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genomics and Rare Diseases
Keywords
protein-protein interaction, missense mutations, binding affinity prediction, stabilizing mutations, multiple mutations, protein complex stability, evolutionary conservation, solvent accessibility, protein-protein interaction inhibitors, proteostasis

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