Cited by 15Computational Drug Discovery MethodsProtein Structure and Dynamicsvaccines and immunoinformatics approaches

Combined Physics- and Machine-Learning-Based Method to Identify Druggable Binding Sites Using SILCS-Hotspots

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Nordquist, Erik B., Zhao, Mingtian, Kumar, Anmol, MacKerell, Alexander D.·2024·Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling

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Abstract

Identifying druggable binding sites on proteins is an important and challenging problem, particularly for cryptic, allosteric binding sites that may not be obvious from X-ray, cryo-EM, or predicted structures. The Site-Identification by Ligand Competitive Saturation (SILCS) method accounts for the flexibility of the target protein using all-atom molecular simulations that include various small molecule solutes in aqueous solution. During the simulations, the combination of protein flexibility and comprehensive sampling of the water and solute spatial distributions can identify buried binding pockets absent in experimentally determined structures. Previously, we reported a method for leveraging the information in the SILCS sampling to identify binding sites (termed Hotspots) of small mono- or bicyclic compounds, a subset of which coincide with known binding sites of drug-like molecules. Here, we build on that physics-based approach and present a ML model for ranking the Hotspots according to the likelihood they can accommodate drug-like molecules (e.g., molecular weight >200 Da). In the independent validation set, which includes various enzymes and receptors, our model recalls 67% and 89% of experimentally validated ligand binding sites in the top 10 and 20 ranked Hotspots, respectively. Furthermore, we show that the model's output Decision Function is a useful metric to predict binding sites and their potential druggability in new targets. Given the utility the SILCS method for ligand discovery and optimization, the tools presented represent an important advancement in the identification of orthosteric and allosteric binding sites and the discovery of drug-like molecules targeting those sites.

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Authors
Nordquist, E. B., Zhao, M., Kumar, A., & MacKerell, A. D.
Affiliations
University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
Corresponding author
MacKerell, Alexander D.
Venue
Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling
Published
2024-09-16
Volume
64
Issue
19
Pages
7743-7757
ISSN
  • 1549-9596 (ISSN-L)
  • 1549-960X
OpenAlex
W4402580877
Cited by
15
References
140
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 2
FWCI
3.18
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (publishedVersion)
  • ChemRxiv (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R35 GM131710)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computational Theory and Mathematics › Computational Drug Discovery Methods
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Structure and Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › vaccines and immunoinformatics approaches
Keywords
allosteric site, orthosteric binding site, SILCS, hot spots, binding site prediction, protein flexibility, ligand binding, decision function, drug-like molecules, ligand discovery, ligand optimization
MeSH terms
Machine Learning, Binding Sites, Ligands, Protein Binding, Protein Conformation, Proteins, Drug Discovery, Molecular Dynamics Simulation

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