Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog(KRAS)protein inhibitors are a promising class of therapeutics,but research on molecules that effectively penetrate the blood-brain barrier(BBB)remains limited,which is crucia...Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog(KRAS)protein inhibitors are a promising class of therapeutics,but research on molecules that effectively penetrate the blood-brain barrier(BBB)remains limited,which is crucial for treating central nervous system(CNS)malignancies.Although molecular generation models have recently advanced drug discovery,they often overlook the complexity of biological and chemical factors,leaving room for improvement.In this study,we present a structureconstrained molecular generation workflow designed to optimize lead compounds for both drug efficacy and drug absorption properties.Our approach utilizes a variational autoencoder(VAE)generative model integrated with reinforcement learning for multi-objective optimization.This method specifically aims to enhance BBB permeability(BBBp)while maintaining high-affinity substructures of KRAS inhibitors.To support this,we incorporate a specialized KRAS BBB predictor based on active learning and an affinity predictor employing comparative learning models.Additionally,we introduce two novel metrics,the knowledge-integrated reproduction score(KIRS)and the composite diversity score(CDS),to assess structural performance and biological relevance.Retrospective validation with KRAS inhibitors,AMG510 and MRTX849,demonstrates the framework’s effectiveness in optimizing BBBp and highlights its potential for real-world drug development applications.This study provides a robust framework for accelerating the structural enhancement of lead compounds,advancing the drug development process across diverse targets.展开更多
Fruits and vegetables in the Cucurbitaceae family,such as cucumber,melon,watermelon,and squash,contribute greatly to the human diet.The widespread use of genome editing technologies has greatly accelerated gene functi...Fruits and vegetables in the Cucurbitaceae family,such as cucumber,melon,watermelon,and squash,contribute greatly to the human diet.The widespread use of genome editing technologies has greatly accelerated gene functional characterization and crop improvement.However,most economically important cucurbit plants,including melon and squash,remain recalcitrant to standard Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation,limiting the effective use of genome editing technology.In this study,we used an“optimal infiltration intensity”strategy to establish an efficient genetic transformation system for melon and squash.We harnessed the power of this method to target homologs of the ERECTA family of receptor kinase genes and created alleles that resulted in a compact plant architecture with shorter internodes in melon,squash,and cucumber.The optimized transformation method presented here enables stable CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis and provides a solid foundation for functional gene manipulation in cucurbit crops.展开更多
The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of rat cytomegalovirus (RCMV) infection on the development of the nervous system in rat embryos, and to evaluate the involvement of Wnt signaling pathway key mo...The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of rat cytomegalovirus (RCMV) infection on the development of the nervous system in rat embryos, and to evaluate the involvement of Wnt signaling pathway key molecules and the downstream gene neurogenin 1 (Ngnl) in RCMV infected neural stem cells (NSCs). Infection and control groups were established, each containing 20 pregnant Wistar rats. Rats in the infection group were inoculated with RCMV by intraperitoneal injection on the first day of pregnancy. Rat E20 embryos were taken to evaluate the teratogenic rate. NSCs were isolated from El3 embryos, and maintained in vitro. We found: 1) Poor fetal development was found in the infection group with low survival and high malformation rates. 2) The proliferation and differentiation of NSCs were affected. In the infection group, NSCs proliferated more slowly and had a lower neurosphere formation rate than the control. The differentiation ratio from NSCs to neurons and glial cells was significantly different from that of the control, showed by immunofluorescenee staining. 3) Ngnl mRNA expression and the nuclear p-catenin protein level were significantly lower than the control on day 2 when NSCs differentiated. 4) The Morris water maze test was performed on 4-week pups, and the infected rats were found worse in learning and memory ability. In a summary, RCMV infection caused abnormalities in the rat embryonic nervous system, significantly inhibited NSC proliferation and differentiation, and inhibited the expression of key molecules in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway so as to affect NSCs differentiation. This may be an important mechanism by which RCMV causes embryonic nervous system abnormalities.展开更多
Thanks to the fast improvement of the computing power and the rapid development of the computational chemistry and biology,the computer-aided drug design techniques have been successfully applied in almost every stage...Thanks to the fast improvement of the computing power and the rapid development of the computational chemistry and biology,the computer-aided drug design techniques have been successfully applied in almost every stage of the drug discovery and development pipeline to speed up the process of research and reduce the cost and risk related to preclinical and clinical trials.Owing to the development of machine learning theory and the accumulation of pharmacological data, the artificial intelligence(AI) technology, as a powerful data mining tool, has cut a figure in various fields of the drug design, such as virtual screening,activity scoring, quantitative structure-activity relationship(QSAR) analysis, de novo drug design, and in silico evaluation of absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity(ADME/T) properties. Although it is still challenging to provide a physical explanation of the AI-based models, it indeed has been acting as a great power to help manipulating the drug discovery through the versatile frameworks. Recently, due to the strong generalization ability and powerful feature extraction capability,deep learning methods have been employed in predicting the molecular properties as well as generating the desired molecules,which will further promote the application of AI technologies in the field of drug design.展开更多
Ensuring drug safety in the early stages of drug development is crucial to avoid costly failures in subsequent phases.However,the economic burden associated with detecting drug off-targets and potential side effects t...Ensuring drug safety in the early stages of drug development is crucial to avoid costly failures in subsequent phases.However,the economic burden associated with detecting drug off-targets and potential side effects through in vitro safety screening and animal testing is substantial.Drug off-target interactions,along with the adverse drug reactions they induce,are significant factors affecting drug safety.To assess the liability of candidate drugs,we developed an artificial intelligence model for the precise prediction of compound off-target interactions,leveraging multi-task graph neural networks.The outcomes of off-target predictions can serve as representations for compounds,enabling the differentiation of drugs under various ATC codes and the classification of compound toxicity.Furthermore,the predicted off-target profiles are employed in adverse drug reaction(ADR)enrichment analysis,facilitating the inference of potential ADRs for a drug.Using the withdrawn drug Pergolide as an example,we elucidate the mechanisms underlying ADRs at the target level,contributing to the exploration of the potential clinical relevance of newly predicted off-target interactions.Overall,our work facilitates the early assessment of compound safetyoxicity based on off-target identification,deduces potential ADRs of drugs,and ultimately promotes the secure development of drugs.展开更多
Traditional drug discovery suffers from low efficiency and high attrition rates,largely due to the complexity and heterogeneity of human diseases.Omics technologies offer a systems-level perspective for uncovering dis...Traditional drug discovery suffers from low efficiency and high attrition rates,largely due to the complexity and heterogeneity of human diseases.Omics technologies offer a systems-level perspective for uncovering disease mechanisms and identifying therapeutic targets,but present challenges such as high dimensionality,noise,and heterogeneity.Large language models(LLMs),originally developed for natural language processing,are emerging as powerful tools to address these issues by capturing complex patterns and inferring missing information from large,noisy datasets.We present a three-part framework:(1)Analyzing how LLM architectures and learning paradigms handle challenges specific to genomics,transcriptomics,and proteomics data;(2)Detailing LLM applications in key areas:uncovering disease mechanisms,identifying drug targets,predicting drug response,and simulating cellular behavior;(3)Discussing how insights from omics-integrated LLMs can inform the development of drugs targeting specific pathways,moving beyond single targets towards strategies grounded in underlying disease biology.This framework provides both conceptual insights and practical guidance for leveraging LLMs in omics-driven drug discovery and development.展开更多
A fundamental challenge that arises in biomedicine is the need to characterize compounds in a relevant cellular context in order to reveal potential on-target or offtarget effects.Recently,the fast accumulation of gen...A fundamental challenge that arises in biomedicine is the need to characterize compounds in a relevant cellular context in order to reveal potential on-target or offtarget effects.Recently,the fast accumulation of gene transcriptional profiling data provides us an unprecedented opportunity to explore the protein targets of chemical compounds from the perspective of cell transcriptomics and RNA biology.Here,we propose a novel Siamese spectral-based graph convolutional network(SSGCN)model for inferring the protein targets of chemical compounds from gene transcriptional profiles.Although the gene signature of a compound perturbation only provides indirect clues of the interacting targets,and the biological networks under different experiment conditions further complicate the situation,the SSGCN model was successfully trained to learn from known compound-target pairs by uncovering the hidden correlations between compound perturbation profiles and gene knockdown profiles.On a benchmark set and a large time-split validation dataset,the model achieved higher target inference accuracy as compared to previous methods such as Connectivity Map.Further experimental validations of prediction results highlight the practical usefulness of SSGCN in either inferring the interacting targets of compound,or reversely,in finding novel inhibitors of a given target of interest.展开更多
This project implemented the Stroke1-2-0 stroke awareness programme across China and investigated its impact over a 2-year period.We initiated the Stroke1-2-0 educational campaign and Stroke1-2-0 special task forces(S...This project implemented the Stroke1-2-0 stroke awareness programme across China and investigated its impact over a 2-year period.We initiated the Stroke1-2-0 educational campaign and Stroke1-2-0 special task forces(STF)across the nation.Massive media coverage,community-based educational sessions with videos and other related materials and induction of Stroke1-2-0 STF were the major means of promotion.We delivered a survey at the end of 2016 and 2018 to evaluate the impact of our effort.A total of 3066 participants responded to the first survey in 2016,and 15207 participants responded in 2018 across China.The acceptance rate for Stroke1-2-0 versus FAST(an English-language stroke awareness tool)was 50.2%versus 19.1%in 2016,and changed significantly to 82.2%versus 8.0%in 2018(p<0.001).Stroke1-2-0 was well accepted by all ages and by people with different academic qualifications.Only 6.5%of survey respondents were aware that there was a therapeutic window for thrombolytic therapy in 2016,but this awareness increased significantly to 32.8%in 2018.Only 12.6%of people in 2016 indicated that they would send patients with stroke to the nearest hospital capable of performing thrombolytic therapy,but there was a nearly threefold increase(52.5%)in this number by 2018.More than 1000 major hospitals joined the Stroke1-2-0 STF,and more than 20000‘stroke warriors’have joined our stroke awareness improvement effort so far.Stroke1-2-0 stroke awareness programme is well-implemented and accepted,and is generating profound improvement in stroke awareness in China.展开更多
Compound-protein interactions(CPIs)are critical in drug discovery for identifying therapeutic targets,drug side effects,and repurposing existing drugs.Machine learning(ML)algorithms have emerged as powerful tools for ...Compound-protein interactions(CPIs)are critical in drug discovery for identifying therapeutic targets,drug side effects,and repurposing existing drugs.Machine learning(ML)algorithms have emerged as powerful tools for CPI prediction,offering notable advantages in cost-effectiveness and efficiency.This review provides an overview of recent advances in both structure-based and non-structure-based CPI prediction ML models,highlighting their performance and achievements.It also offers insights into CPI prediction-related datasets and evaluation benchmarks.Lastly,the article presents a comprehensive assessment of the current landscape of CPI prediction,elucidating the challenges faced and outlining emerging trends to advance the field.展开更多
基金supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China(Grant Nos.:2022YFC3400504 and 2023YFC2305904)the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,China(Grant Nos.:XDB0830203 and XDB0830200)+2 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.:82204278,31960198,T2225002,and 82273855)SIMM-SHUTCM Traditional Chinese Medicine Innovation Joint Research Program,China(Grant No.:E2G805H)Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project,China,and Key Technologies R&D Program of Guangdong Province,China(Grant No.:2023B1111030004).
摘要Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog(KRAS)protein inhibitors are a promising class of therapeutics,but research on molecules that effectively penetrate the blood-brain barrier(BBB)remains limited,which is crucial for treating central nervous system(CNS)malignancies.Although molecular generation models have recently advanced drug discovery,they often overlook the complexity of biological and chemical factors,leaving room for improvement.In this study,we present a structureconstrained molecular generation workflow designed to optimize lead compounds for both drug efficacy and drug absorption properties.Our approach utilizes a variational autoencoder(VAE)generative model integrated with reinforcement learning for multi-objective optimization.This method specifically aims to enhance BBB permeability(BBBp)while maintaining high-affinity substructures of KRAS inhibitors.To support this,we incorporate a specialized KRAS BBB predictor based on active learning and an affinity predictor employing comparative learning models.Additionally,we introduce two novel metrics,the knowledge-integrated reproduction score(KIRS)and the composite diversity score(CDS),to assess structural performance and biological relevance.Retrospective validation with KRAS inhibitors,AMG510 and MRTX849,demonstrates the framework’s effectiveness in optimizing BBBp and highlights its potential for real-world drug development applications.This study provides a robust framework for accelerating the structural enhancement of lead compounds,advancing the drug development process across diverse targets.
基金supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(2019YFA0906200)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31922076 to X.Y.)the Science and Technology Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences(CAASASTIP).
摘要Fruits and vegetables in the Cucurbitaceae family,such as cucumber,melon,watermelon,and squash,contribute greatly to the human diet.The widespread use of genome editing technologies has greatly accelerated gene functional characterization and crop improvement.However,most economically important cucurbit plants,including melon and squash,remain recalcitrant to standard Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation,limiting the effective use of genome editing technology.In this study,we used an“optimal infiltration intensity”strategy to establish an efficient genetic transformation system for melon and squash.We harnessed the power of this method to target homologs of the ERECTA family of receptor kinase genes and created alleles that resulted in a compact plant architecture with shorter internodes in melon,squash,and cucumber.The optimized transformation method presented here enables stable CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis and provides a solid foundation for functional gene manipulation in cucurbit crops.
基金Shandong Province High-level Talent of Health 1020 Project Fund(No.2008-1)Science and Technology Creative Research of Weifang Medical University(No.K11TS1010)+1 种基金A Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program(No.J12LK04)National Natural Science Foundation of China(30900775)
摘要The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of rat cytomegalovirus (RCMV) infection on the development of the nervous system in rat embryos, and to evaluate the involvement of Wnt signaling pathway key molecules and the downstream gene neurogenin 1 (Ngnl) in RCMV infected neural stem cells (NSCs). Infection and control groups were established, each containing 20 pregnant Wistar rats. Rats in the infection group were inoculated with RCMV by intraperitoneal injection on the first day of pregnancy. Rat E20 embryos were taken to evaluate the teratogenic rate. NSCs were isolated from El3 embryos, and maintained in vitro. We found: 1) Poor fetal development was found in the infection group with low survival and high malformation rates. 2) The proliferation and differentiation of NSCs were affected. In the infection group, NSCs proliferated more slowly and had a lower neurosphere formation rate than the control. The differentiation ratio from NSCs to neurons and glial cells was significantly different from that of the control, showed by immunofluorescenee staining. 3) Ngnl mRNA expression and the nuclear p-catenin protein level were significantly lower than the control on day 2 when NSCs differentiated. 4) The Morris water maze test was performed on 4-week pups, and the infected rats were found worse in learning and memory ability. In a summary, RCMV infection caused abnormalities in the rat embryonic nervous system, significantly inhibited NSC proliferation and differentiation, and inhibited the expression of key molecules in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway so as to affect NSCs differentiation. This may be an important mechanism by which RCMV causes embryonic nervous system abnormalities.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21210003 and 81230076 to H.J., 81773634 to M.Z. and 81430084 to K.C.)the “Personalized Medicines-Molecular Signature-based Drug Discovery and Development”, Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA12050201 to M.Z.)+1 种基金National Key Research & Development Plan (2016YFC1201003 to M.Z.)the National Basic Research Program (2015CB910304 to X.L.)
摘要Thanks to the fast improvement of the computing power and the rapid development of the computational chemistry and biology,the computer-aided drug design techniques have been successfully applied in almost every stage of the drug discovery and development pipeline to speed up the process of research and reduce the cost and risk related to preclinical and clinical trials.Owing to the development of machine learning theory and the accumulation of pharmacological data, the artificial intelligence(AI) technology, as a powerful data mining tool, has cut a figure in various fields of the drug design, such as virtual screening,activity scoring, quantitative structure-activity relationship(QSAR) analysis, de novo drug design, and in silico evaluation of absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity(ADME/T) properties. Although it is still challenging to provide a physical explanation of the AI-based models, it indeed has been acting as a great power to help manipulating the drug discovery through the versatile frameworks. Recently, due to the strong generalization ability and powerful feature extraction capability,deep learning methods have been employed in predicting the molecular properties as well as generating the desired molecules,which will further promote the application of AI technologies in the field of drug design.
基金supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China(2022YFC3400504 to Mingyue Zheng)National Natural Science Foundation of China(T2225002 and 82273855 to Mingyue Zheng,82204278 to Xutong Li)+2 种基金Lingang Laboratory(LG202102-01-02 to Mingyue Zheng)SIMMSHUTCM Traditional Chinese Medicine Innovation Joint Research Program(E2G805H to Mingyue Zheng)Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project.
摘要Ensuring drug safety in the early stages of drug development is crucial to avoid costly failures in subsequent phases.However,the economic burden associated with detecting drug off-targets and potential side effects through in vitro safety screening and animal testing is substantial.Drug off-target interactions,along with the adverse drug reactions they induce,are significant factors affecting drug safety.To assess the liability of candidate drugs,we developed an artificial intelligence model for the precise prediction of compound off-target interactions,leveraging multi-task graph neural networks.The outcomes of off-target predictions can serve as representations for compounds,enabling the differentiation of drugs under various ATC codes and the classification of compound toxicity.Furthermore,the predicted off-target profiles are employed in adverse drug reaction(ADR)enrichment analysis,facilitating the inference of potential ADRs for a drug.Using the withdrawn drug Pergolide as an example,we elucidate the mechanisms underlying ADRs at the target level,contributing to the exploration of the potential clinical relevance of newly predicted off-target interactions.Overall,our work facilitates the early assessment of compound safetyoxicity based on off-target identification,deduces potential ADRs of drugs,and ultimately promotes the secure development of drugs.
基金supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.XDB0830000,China)National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.82204278,T2225002,and 82273855)+4 种基金SIMM-SHUTCM Traditional Chinese Medicine Innovation Joint Research Program(No.E2G805H,China)Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project,National Key Research and Development Program of China(Nos.2023YFC2305904 and 2022YFC3400504)Key Technologies R&D Program of Guangdong Province(No.2023B1111030004,China)Shanghai Sailing Program(No.24YF2755600,China)the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(No.2024M763421).
摘要Traditional drug discovery suffers from low efficiency and high attrition rates,largely due to the complexity and heterogeneity of human diseases.Omics technologies offer a systems-level perspective for uncovering disease mechanisms and identifying therapeutic targets,but present challenges such as high dimensionality,noise,and heterogeneity.Large language models(LLMs),originally developed for natural language processing,are emerging as powerful tools to address these issues by capturing complex patterns and inferring missing information from large,noisy datasets.We present a three-part framework:(1)Analyzing how LLM architectures and learning paradigms handle challenges specific to genomics,transcriptomics,and proteomics data;(2)Detailing LLM applications in key areas:uncovering disease mechanisms,identifying drug targets,predicting drug response,and simulating cellular behavior;(3)Discussing how insights from omics-integrated LLMs can inform the development of drugs targeting specific pathways,moving beyond single targets towards strategies grounded in underlying disease biology.This framework provides both conceptual insights and practical guidance for leveraging LLMs in omics-driven drug discovery and development.
摘要A fundamental challenge that arises in biomedicine is the need to characterize compounds in a relevant cellular context in order to reveal potential on-target or offtarget effects.Recently,the fast accumulation of gene transcriptional profiling data provides us an unprecedented opportunity to explore the protein targets of chemical compounds from the perspective of cell transcriptomics and RNA biology.Here,we propose a novel Siamese spectral-based graph convolutional network(SSGCN)model for inferring the protein targets of chemical compounds from gene transcriptional profiles.Although the gene signature of a compound perturbation only provides indirect clues of the interacting targets,and the biological networks under different experiment conditions further complicate the situation,the SSGCN model was successfully trained to learn from known compound-target pairs by uncovering the hidden correlations between compound perturbation profiles and gene knockdown profiles.On a benchmark set and a large time-split validation dataset,the model achieved higher target inference accuracy as compared to previous methods such as Connectivity Map.Further experimental validations of prediction results highlight the practical usefulness of SSGCN in either inferring the interacting targets of compound,or reversely,in finding novel inhibitors of a given target of interest.
基金We appreciate the following funding support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(81572232,PI:JZ)Shanghai Natural Science Foundation(17dz2308400,PI:JZ)China Research Engagement Funding of the University of Pennsylvania(CREF-030,PI:RL).
摘要This project implemented the Stroke1-2-0 stroke awareness programme across China and investigated its impact over a 2-year period.We initiated the Stroke1-2-0 educational campaign and Stroke1-2-0 special task forces(STF)across the nation.Massive media coverage,community-based educational sessions with videos and other related materials and induction of Stroke1-2-0 STF were the major means of promotion.We delivered a survey at the end of 2016 and 2018 to evaluate the impact of our effort.A total of 3066 participants responded to the first survey in 2016,and 15207 participants responded in 2018 across China.The acceptance rate for Stroke1-2-0 versus FAST(an English-language stroke awareness tool)was 50.2%versus 19.1%in 2016,and changed significantly to 82.2%versus 8.0%in 2018(p<0.001).Stroke1-2-0 was well accepted by all ages and by people with different academic qualifications.Only 6.5%of survey respondents were aware that there was a therapeutic window for thrombolytic therapy in 2016,but this awareness increased significantly to 32.8%in 2018.Only 12.6%of people in 2016 indicated that they would send patients with stroke to the nearest hospital capable of performing thrombolytic therapy,but there was a nearly threefold increase(52.5%)in this number by 2018.More than 1000 major hospitals joined the Stroke1-2-0 STF,and more than 20000‘stroke warriors’have joined our stroke awareness improvement effort so far.Stroke1-2-0 stroke awareness programme is well-implemented and accepted,and is generating profound improvement in stroke awareness in China.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(T2225002,82273855 to M.Y.Z.,82204278 to X.T.L.)Lingang Laboratory(LG202102-01-02 to M.Y.Z.)+2 种基金National Key Research and Development Programof China(2022YFC3400504 toM.Y.Z.)SIMM-SHUTCM Traditional Chinese Medicine Innovation Joint Research Program(E2G805H to M.Y.Z.)Shanghai Municipal Science and TechnologyMajor Project and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2022M720153 to X.T.L.).
摘要Compound-protein interactions(CPIs)are critical in drug discovery for identifying therapeutic targets,drug side effects,and repurposing existing drugs.Machine learning(ML)algorithms have emerged as powerful tools for CPI prediction,offering notable advantages in cost-effectiveness and efficiency.This review provides an overview of recent advances in both structure-based and non-structure-based CPI prediction ML models,highlighting their performance and achievements.It also offers insights into CPI prediction-related datasets and evaluation benchmarks.Lastly,the article presents a comprehensive assessment of the current landscape of CPI prediction,elucidating the challenges faced and outlining emerging trends to advance the field.