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Computational Intelligence and Biochemical Approaches towards Drug Discovery, Molecular Docking and Tissue Engineering

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Informatics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2024) | Viewed by 6482

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Nuclear Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA 16801, USA
Interests: material syntheses; characterization; tissue engineering; cancer therapy; nanoparticle catalysis; biochemistry

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, State College, PA 16801, USA
Interests: bioinformatics; computational biology; microbiology; structural biology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

In the current era, drug discovery is a complicated and multistep procedure involving a range of various experiments and clinical testing of potential biomolecules that spans years and costs millions of dollars. Despite investing huge amounts of money and time, the rate of possible success is poor, approximately below 15%. In recent times, the advancement of computational intelligence including machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL) and optimization approaches in the field of drug discovery and molecular docking has increased the speed and success rate of drug discovery in a tremendous fashion. These technologies enable researchers to simulate and predict the interactions between respective biomolecules and receptors, which speed up the drug discovery process along with a better accuracy rate. Various computational methods include different algorithms or frameworks related to decision trees, random forests, support vector machine, neural network, deep learning, cox-regression, hashing, multi-objective optimization-based models that tend to develop variational autoencoder, graph neural network, gene modules, hub gene signatures and many more biomedical models/outcomes. Thus, to detect and cure of various complex and dreadful diseases like Cancer, COVID-19, etc., early, new mathematical and other computational techniques that are beneficial to human being in from medical perspective are most welcome. For improving the effectiveness of the upcoming algorithms/flowcharts, it is our pleasure to explore the use of transfer learning techniques that involve pre-trained models and fine-tuning them for specific tasks. Researchers can investigate the potential of transfer learning for drug discovery and molecular docking using appropriate pre-trained models. In addition, our Special Issue also covers various biochemical techniques useful for tissue engineering, cancer therapy, nanoparticle catalysis, material syntheses as well as nanomedicine that tied into computational learning to some extent.

However, the motto of this topic deals with the collection of review works, original research articles, case studies, extensive wet lab data analysis and further downstream analysis that are expected to contribute a lot towards the development of novel and more effective methods for drug discovery as well as other biochemical prospective and tissue engineering. Specifically, we hope to achieve the following outcomes, but not limited to those only:

  • Identifying new ML and DL algorithms for the potential drug discovery and molecular docking.
  • Developing novel approaches or modifications on clinical testing or therapeutic values.
  • Application of various individual DL models (such as VAE, GNN and GAN) or integrated multi-faceted DL models.
  • Integrative study of multi-omics gene signature discovery and potential drug discovery using ML and biostatistical applications.
  • Protein design (viz., sequence or structure generative model) and drug discovery.
  • Potential therapeutic agents on neurodegenerative diseases (viz., Alzheimer's Disease) by molecular docking along with molecular dynamics simulation study of human and plant-based compounds.
  • Bioinformatics analysis of PROTAC or molecular glue applied to pharmaceutical industry.
  • Nitroarene reduction for testing nanoparticle catalysts.
  • Possible effects of electron-beam, gamma-ray, and X-ray irradiation on the areas of physicochemical properties of the heat-induced gel that was made ready with the salt-soluble pork protein.
  • Modification of the surface of bacterial cellulose for various biomedical applications which ranges from drug delivery platforms to tissue engineering techniques.
  • Modification of the surface of organic and inorganic biomaterials through the directed irradiation synthesis for enhanced cell adhesion as well as cell proliferation in the respective tissue.

Dr. Saurav Mallik
Dr. Teresa Aditya
Prof. Dr. Kai Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • artificial intelligence
  • drug discovery
  • molecular docking
  • deep learning
  • tissue engineering
  • cancer detection
  • cancer therapy
  • protein design
  • nanoparticle catalysts
  • material syntheses
  • nanomedicine

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 1907 KiB  
Article
In Silico Analysis of the Molecular Interaction between Anthocyanase, Peroxidase and Polyphenol Oxidase with Anthocyanins Found in Cranberries
by Victoria Araya, Marcell Gatica, Elena Uribe and Juan Román
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(19), 10437; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms251910437 - 27 Sep 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1228
Abstract
Anthocyanins are bioactive compounds responsible for various physiological processes in plants and provide characteristic colors to fruits and flowers. Their biosynthetic pathway is well understood; however, the enzymatic degradation mechanism is less explored. Anthocyanase (β-glucosidase (BGL)), peroxidase (POD), and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) are [...] Read more.
Anthocyanins are bioactive compounds responsible for various physiological processes in plants and provide characteristic colors to fruits and flowers. Their biosynthetic pathway is well understood; however, the enzymatic degradation mechanism is less explored. Anthocyanase (β-glucosidase (BGL)), peroxidase (POD), and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) are enzymes involved in degrading anthocyanins in plants such as petunias, eggplants, and Sicilian oranges. The aim of this work was to investigate the physicochemical interactions between these enzymes and the identified anthocyanins (via UPLC-MS/MS) in cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) through molecular docking to identify the residues likely involved in anthocyanin degradation. Three-dimensional models were constructed using the AlphaFold2 server based on consensus sequences specific to each enzyme. The models with the highest confidence scores (pLDDT) were selected, with BGL, POD, and PPO achieving scores of 87.6, 94.8, and 84.1, respectively. These models were then refined using molecular dynamics for 100 ns. Additionally, UPLC-MS/MS analysis identified various flavonoids in cranberries, including cyanidin, delphinidin, procyanidin B2 and B4, petunidin, pelargonidin, peonidin, and malvidin, providing important experimental data to support the study. Molecular docking simulations revealed the most stable interactions between anthocyanase and the anthocyanins cyanidin 3-arabinoside and cyanidin 3-glucoside, with a favorable ΔG of interaction between −9.3 and −9.2 kcal/mol. This study contributes to proposing a degradation mechanism and seeking inhibitors to prevent fruit discoloration. Full article
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21 pages, 4315 KiB  
Article
Reliability of AlphaFold2 Models in Virtual Drug Screening: A Focus on Selected Class A GPCRs
by Nada K. Alhumaid and Essam A. Tawfik
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(18), 10139; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms251810139 - 21 Sep 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2463
Abstract
Protein three-dimensional (3D) structure prediction is one of the most challenging issues in the field of computational biochemistry, which has overwhelmed scientists for almost half a century. A significant breakthrough in structural biology has been established by developing the artificial intelligence (AI) system [...] Read more.
Protein three-dimensional (3D) structure prediction is one of the most challenging issues in the field of computational biochemistry, which has overwhelmed scientists for almost half a century. A significant breakthrough in structural biology has been established by developing the artificial intelligence (AI) system AlphaFold2 (AF2). The AF2 system provides a state-of-the-art prediction of protein structures from nearly all known protein sequences with high accuracy. This study examined the reliability of AF2 models compared to the experimental structures in drug discovery, focusing on one of the most common protein drug-targeted classes known as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) class A. A total of 32 representative protein targets were selected, including experimental structures of X-ray crystallographic and Cryo-EM structures and their corresponding AF2 models. The quality of AF2 models was assessed using different structure validation tools, including the pLDDT score, RMSD value, MolProbity score, percentage of Ramachandran favored, QMEAN Z-score, and QMEANDisCo Global. The molecular docking was performed using the Genetic Optimization for Ligand Docking (GOLD) software. The AF2 models’ reliability in virtual drug screening was determined by their ability to predict the ligand binding poses closest to the native binding pose by assessing the Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) metric and docking scoring function. The quality of the docking and scoring function was evaluated using the enrichment factor (EF). Furthermore, the capability of using AF2 models in molecular docking to identify hits with key protein–ligand interactions was analyzed. The posing power results showed that the AF2 models successfully predicted ligand binding poses (RMSD < 2 Å). However, they exhibited lower screening power, with average EF values of 2.24, 2.42, and 1.82 for X-ray, Cryo-EM, and AF2 structures, respectively. Moreover, our study revealed that molecular docking using AF2 models can identify competitive inhibitors. In conclusion, this study found that AF2 models provided docking results comparable to experimental structures, particularly for certain GPCR targets, and could potentially significantly impact drug discovery. Full article
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17 pages, 2199 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Broccoli Glucosinolates Hydrolysis Products on Botrytis cinerea: A Potential New Antifungal Agent
by Juan Román, Ailine Lagos, Andrea Mahn and Julián Quintero
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(14), 7945; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25147945 - 20 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1296
Abstract
The present study investigates the interactions between eight glucosinolate hydrolysis products (GHPs) sourced from broccoli by-products and the detoxifying enzymes of Botrytis cinerea, namely eburicol 14-alpha-demethylase (CYP51) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST), through in silico analysis. Additionally, in vitro assays were conducted to explore the [...] Read more.
The present study investigates the interactions between eight glucosinolate hydrolysis products (GHPs) sourced from broccoli by-products and the detoxifying enzymes of Botrytis cinerea, namely eburicol 14-alpha-demethylase (CYP51) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST), through in silico analysis. Additionally, in vitro assays were conducted to explore the impact of these compounds on fungal growth. Our findings reveal that GHPs exhibit greater efficacy in inhibiting conidia germination compared to mycelium growth. Furthermore, the results demonstrate the antifungal activity of glucosinolate hydrolysis products derived from various parts of the broccoli plant, including inflorescences, leaves, and stems, against B. cinerea. Importantly, the results suggest that these hydrolysis products interact with the detoxifying enzymes of the fungus, potentially contributing to their antifungal properties. Extracts rich in GHPs, particularly iberin and indole-GHPs, derived from broccoli by-products emerge as promising candidates for biofungicidal applications, offering a sustainable and novel approach to plant protection by harnessing bioactive compounds from agricultural residues. Full article
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