A pocket-based 3D molecule generative model fueled by experimental electron density

Sci Rep. 2022 Sep 6;12(1):15100. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-19363-6.

Abstract

We report for the first time the use of experimental electron density (ED) as training data for the generation of drug-like three-dimensional molecules based on the structure of a target protein pocket. Similar to a structural biologist building molecules based on their ED, our model functions with two main components: a generative adversarial network (GAN) to generate the ligand ED in the input pocket and an ED interpretation module for molecule generation. The model was tested on three targets: a kinase (hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1), protease (SARS-CoV-2 main protease), and nuclear receptor (vitamin D receptor), and evaluated with a reference dataset composed of over 8000 compounds that have their activities reported in the literature. The evaluation considered the chemical validity, chemical space distribution-based diversity, and similarity with reference active compounds concerning the molecular structure and pocket-binding mode. Our model can generate molecules with similar structures to classical active compounds and novel compounds sharing similar binding modes with active compounds, making it a promising tool for library generation supporting high-throughput virtual screening. The ligand ED generated can also be used to support fragment-based drug design. Our model is available as an online service to academic users via https://edmg.stonewise.cn/#/create .

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Electrons*
  • Humans
  • Ligands
  • Models, Molecular
  • SARS-CoV-2

Substances

  • Ligands