A graph-convolutional (Graph-CNN) framework for predicting protein-ligand interactions.
Accurate determination of target-ligand interactions is crucial in the drug discovery process. In this paper, we propose a graph-convolutional (Graph-CNN) framework for predicting protein-ligand interactions. First, we built an unsupervised graph-autoencoder to learn fixed-size representations of protein pockets from a set of representative druggable protein binding sites. Second, we trained two Graph-CNNs to automatically extract features from pocket graphs and 2D ligand graphs, respectively, driven by binding classification labels. We demonstrate that graph-autoencoders can learn fixed-size representations for protein pockets of varying sizes and the Graph-CNN framework can effectively capture protein-ligand binding interactions without relying on target-ligand co-complexes. Across several metrics, Graph-CNNs achieved better or comparable performance to 3DCNN ligand-scoring, AutoDock Vina, RF-Score, and NNScore on common virtual screening benchmark datasets. Visualization of key pocket residues and ligand atoms contributing to the classification decisions confirms that our networks recognize meaningful interactions between pockets and ligands.