Back

Design and optimization of novel succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors against agricultural fungi based on Transformer model

Pian, C.; Zhang, Y.; Chai, J.; Li, L.; Zhao, W.; Zhang, L.; Chen, Y.; Xu, Z.; Yang, C.

2024-02-20 biochemistry
10.1101/2024.02.20.581130 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors (SDHIs) are a promising class of fungicides targeting the energy production pathway of pathogenic fungi. However, overuse has led to resistance, necessitating the development of new and effective SDHIs. This study takes the Transformer model to generate a customized virtual library of potential SDHIs. These candidates were then meticulously screened based on expert knowledge and synthetic feasibility, ultimately yielding several pyrazole carboxamide derivatives as the promising leads. Subsequent synthesis, antifungal activity testing, and structural optimization further refined these leads into potent SDHI candidates. This work marks the first application of a generative model to SDHI design, establishing a robust workflow for virtual library generation, screening, activity evaluation, and structure optimization. This provides one way for the rational design of future SDHIs, not only against fungi, but potentially other agricultural pathogens as well.

Published in Molecular Diversity · not in our set (fewer than 10 published preprints to learn from) · training set

Matching journals

The top 9 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.