Abstract
The number of neurodegenerative diseases has been increasing in recent years. Many of the drug candidates to be used in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases present specific 3D structural features. An important protein in this sense is the acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which is the target of many Alzheimer's dementia drugs. Consequently, the prediction of Drug-Protein Interactions (DPIs/nDPIs) between new drug candidates and specific 3D structure and targets is of major importance. To this end, we can use Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (QSAR) models to carry out a rational DPIs prediction. Unfortunately, many previous QSAR models developed to predict DPIs take into consideration only 2D structural information and codify the activity against only one target. To solve this problem we can develop some 3D multi-target QSAR (3D mt-QSAR) models. In this study, using the 3D MI-DRAGON technique, we have introduced a new predictor for DPIs based on two different well-known software. We have used the MARCH-INSIDE (MI) and DRAGON software to calculate 3D structural parameters for drugs and targets respectively. Both classes of 3D parameters were used as input to train Artificial Neuronal Network (ANN) algorithms using as benchmark dataset the complex network (CN) made up of all DPIs between US FDA approved drugs and their targets. The entire dataset was downloaded from the DrugBank database. The best 3D mt-QSAR predictor found was an ANN of Multi-Layer Perceptron-type (MLP) with profile MLP 37:37-24-1:1. This MLP classifies correctly 274 out of 321 DPIs (Sensitivity = 85.35%) and 1041 out of 1190 nDPIs (Specificity = 87.48%), corresponding to training Accuracy = 87.03%. We have validated the model with external predicting series with Sensitivity = 84.16% (542/644 DPIs; Specificity = 87.51% (2039/2330 nDPIs) and Accuracy = 86.78%. The new CNs of DPIs reconstructed from US FDA can be used to explore large DPI databases in order to discover both new drugs and/or targets. We have carried out some theoretical-experimental studies to illustrate the practical use of 3D MI-DRAGON. First, we have reported the prediction and pharmacological assay of 22 different rasagiline derivatives with possible AChE inhibitory activity. In this work, we have reviewed different computational studies on Drug- Protein models. First, we have reviewed 10 studies on DP computational models. Next, we have reviewed 2D QSAR, 3D QSAR, CoMFA, CoMSIA and Docking with different compounds to find Drug-Protein QSAR models. Last, we have developped a 3D multi-target QSAR (3D mt-QSAR) models for the prediction of the activity of new compounds against different targets or the discovery of new targets.
Keywords: Drug-protein interaction complex networks, protein structure networks, multi-target QSAR, markov model, AChE inhibitors