Druggability of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins and Their Virtual Screening Strategy

Abstract

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) widely exist in nature and have important physiological functionalities in life. They are related to multiple human diseases. Thus, studying IDPs provides new opportunities on drug design. This paper briefly reviewed the research progress of IDPs. Then a new approach was introduced which utilised a software called CAVITY to seek potentially druggable cavities in IDPs and analysed the structural conservation of these cavities. We discover that even if IDPs lack of stable secondary or tertiary structure, the structures of potentially druggable cavity are still able to maintain a good consistency. Finally, this paper discussed the possibilities of IDPs being drug design targets and the rational strategy of drug design on IDPs.