The identification and optimization of mutations in nanobodies are crucial for enhancing their thera-peutic potential in disease prevention and control.However,this process is often complex and time-consuming,which li...The identification and optimization of mutations in nanobodies are crucial for enhancing their thera-peutic potential in disease prevention and control.However,this process is often complex and time-consuming,which limit its widespread application in practice.In this study,we developed a work-flow,named Evolutionary-Nanobody(EvoNB),to predict key mutation sites of nanobodies by combining protein language models(PLMs)and molecular dynamic(MD)simulations.By fine-tuning the ESM2 model on a large-scale nanobody dataset,the ability of EvoNB to capture specific sequence features of nanobodies was significantly enhanced.The fine-tuned EvoNB model demonstrated higher predictive accuracy in the conserved framework and highly variable complementarity-determining regions of nanobodies.Additionally,we selected four widely representative nanobodyeantigen complexes to verify the predicted effects of mutations.MD simulations analyzed the energy changes caused by these mu-tations to predict their impact on binding affinity to the targets.The results showed that multiple mu-tations screened by EvoNB significantly enhanced the binding affinity between nanobody and its target,further validating the potential of this workflow for designing and optimizing nanobody mutations.Additionally,sequence-based predictions are generally less dependent on structural absence,allowing them to be more easily integrated with tools for structural predictions,such as AlphaFold 3.Through mutation prediction and systematic analysis of key sites,we can quickly predict the most promising variants for experimental validation without relying on traditional evolutionary or selection processes.The EvoNB workflow provides an effective tool for the rapid optimization of nanobodies and facilitates the application of PLMs in the biomedical field.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.:92477103,22273023,12474285 and 22373116)the National Key R&D Program of China(Grant No.:2019YFA0905200)+5 种基金Shanghai Municipal Natural Science Foundation(Grant No.:23ZR1418200)Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing,China(Grant No.:CSTB2023NSCQ-MSX0616)Shanghai Frontiers Science Center of Molecule Intelligent SynthesesShanghai Future Discipline Program(Quantum Science and Tech-nology)Shanghai Municipal Education Commission’s“Artificial Intelligence-Driven Research Paradigm Reform and Discipline Advancement Program”the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
文摘The identification and optimization of mutations in nanobodies are crucial for enhancing their thera-peutic potential in disease prevention and control.However,this process is often complex and time-consuming,which limit its widespread application in practice.In this study,we developed a work-flow,named Evolutionary-Nanobody(EvoNB),to predict key mutation sites of nanobodies by combining protein language models(PLMs)and molecular dynamic(MD)simulations.By fine-tuning the ESM2 model on a large-scale nanobody dataset,the ability of EvoNB to capture specific sequence features of nanobodies was significantly enhanced.The fine-tuned EvoNB model demonstrated higher predictive accuracy in the conserved framework and highly variable complementarity-determining regions of nanobodies.Additionally,we selected four widely representative nanobodyeantigen complexes to verify the predicted effects of mutations.MD simulations analyzed the energy changes caused by these mu-tations to predict their impact on binding affinity to the targets.The results showed that multiple mu-tations screened by EvoNB significantly enhanced the binding affinity between nanobody and its target,further validating the potential of this workflow for designing and optimizing nanobody mutations.Additionally,sequence-based predictions are generally less dependent on structural absence,allowing them to be more easily integrated with tools for structural predictions,such as AlphaFold 3.Through mutation prediction and systematic analysis of key sites,we can quickly predict the most promising variants for experimental validation without relying on traditional evolutionary or selection processes.The EvoNB workflow provides an effective tool for the rapid optimization of nanobodies and facilitates the application of PLMs in the biomedical field.