Profiling prediction of nuclear receptor modulators with multi-task deep learning methods: toward the virtual screening

Nuclear receptors (NRs) are ligand-activated transcription factors, which constitute one of the most important targets for drug discovery. Current computational strategies mainly focus on a single target, and the transfer of learned knowledge among NRs was not considered yet. Herein we proposed a novel computational framework named NR-Profiler for prediction of potential NR modulators with high affinity and specificity. First, we built a comprehensive NR data set including 42 684 interactions to connect 42 NRs and 31 033 compounds. Then, we used multi-task deep neural network and multi-task graph convolutional neural network architectures to construct multi-task multi-classification models. To improve the predictive capability and robustness, we built a consensus model with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) = 0.883. Compared with conventional machine learning and structure-based approaches, the consensus model showed better performance in external validation. Using this consensus model, we demonstrated the practical value of NR-Profiler in virtual screening for NRs. In addition, we designed a selectivity score to quantitatively measure the specificity of NR modulators. Finally, we developed a freely available standalone software for users to make profiling predictions for their compounds of interest. In summary, our NR-Profiler provides a useful tool for NR-profiling prediction and is expected to facilitate NR-based drug discovery.