Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: Proteasome-derived antimicrobial peptides discovered via deep learning
doi: 10.1101/2025.03.17.643752
Figure Lengend Snippet: Host proteins are proteolytically processed by the proteasome under both normal and infection conditions, generating “encrypted peptides” that may exhibit antimicrobial activity (the “cross-talk hypothesis”). The APEX deep-learning model screens these peptides for their predicted minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) against clinically relevant pathogens. Peptides meeting the MIC cutoff (≤64□μmol□L□ ) are designated as “proteasomins.” Comparative analyses—encompassing known antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), physicochemical profiling, and dimensionality reduction (UMAP)—further refine and characterize proteasomins, highlighting their distinct sequence space and potential as novel therapeutic agents.
Article Snippet: The model predicted MIC values against 11 clinically relevant pathogens, including E. coli ATCC 11775, P. aeruginosa PAO1, P. aeruginosa PA14, S. aureus ATCC 12600, E. coli AIC221, E. coli AIC222, K. pneumoniae ATCC 13883, A. baumannii ATCC 19606, methicillin-resistant S. aureus ATCC BAA-1556, vancomycin-resistant E. faecalis ATCC 700802 and vancomycin-resistant E. faecium ATCC 700221, after which peptides were ranked by median MIC <64 μmol L -1 .
Techniques: Infection, Activity Assay, Concentration Assay, Sequencing