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Computational advances in discovering cryptic pockets for drug discovery

Published inCurrent opinion in structural biology, vol. 90, 102975
Publication date2025-02
Abstract

A number of promising therapeutic target proteins have been considered "undruggable" due to the lack of well-defined ligandable pockets. Substantial research in protein dynamics has elucidated the existence of "cryptic" pockets that only exist transiently and become favorable for binding in the presence of a ligand. These pockets provide an avenue to target challenging proteins, inspiring the development of multiple computational methods. This review highlights established cryptic pocket modeling approaches like mixed solvent molecular dynamics and recent applications of enhanced sampling and AI-based methods in therapeutically relevant proteins.

Keywords
  • Allostery
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Cryptic pockets
  • Enhanced sampling
  • Mixed-solvent molecular dynamics
Citation (ISO format)
BEMELMANS, Martijn et al. Computational advances in discovering cryptic pockets for drug discovery. In: Current opinion in structural biology, 2025, vol. 90, p. 102975. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2024.102975
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Journal ISSN0959-440X
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Technical informations

Creation17/01/2025 10:02:35
First validation04/04/2025 12:18:23
Update04/04/2025 12:18:23
Status update04/04/2025 12:18:23
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