3DProtDTA: a deep learning model for drug-target affinity prediction based on residue-level protein graphs

• Published in: RSC advances 2023-03, Vol.13 (15), p.1261-1272
• Main Authors: Voitsitskyi, Taras, Stratiichuk, Roman, Koleiev, Ihor, Popryho, Leonid, Ostrovsky, Zakhar, Henitsoi, Pavlo, Khropachov, Ivan, Vozniak, Volodymyr, Zhytar, Roman, Nechepurenko, Diana, Yesylevskyy, Semen, Nafiiev, Alan, Starosyla, Serhii
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Affinity; Chemistry; Deep learning; Differential thermal analysis; Graph neural networks; Graphical representations; Machine learning; Molecular structure; Proteins
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/d3ra00281k

Accurate prediction of the drug-target affinity (DTA) in silico is of critical importance for modern drug discovery. Computational methods of DTA prediction, applied in the early stages of drug development, are able to speed it up and cut its cost significantly. A wide range of approaches based on machine learning were recently proposed for DTA assessment. The most promising of them are based on deep learning techniques and graph neural networks to encode molecular structures. The recent breakthrough in protein structure prediction made by AlphaFold made an unprecedented amount of proteins without experimentally defined structures accessible for computational DTA prediction. In this work, we propose a new deep learning DTA model 3DProtDTA, which utilises AlphaFold structure predictions in conjunction with the graph representation of proteins. The model is superior to its rivals on common benchmarking datasets and has potential for further improvement. We propose a new deep learning DTA model 3DProtDTA, which utilises AlphaFold structure predictions in conjunction with the graph representation of proteins.