LocPro: A deep learning-based prediction of protein subcellular localization for promoting multi-directional pharmaceutical research

Drug development encompasses multiple processes, wherein protein subcellular localization is essential. It promotes target identification, treatment development, and the design of drug delivery systems. In this research, a deep learning framework called LocPro is presented for predicting protein sub...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yintao Zhang, Lingyan Zheng, Nanxin You, Wei Hu, Wanghao Jiang, Mingkun Lu, Hangwei Xu, Haibin Dai, Tingting Fu, Ying Zhou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-08-01
Series:Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095177925000723
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Summary:Drug development encompasses multiple processes, wherein protein subcellular localization is essential. It promotes target identification, treatment development, and the design of drug delivery systems. In this research, a deep learning framework called LocPro is presented for predicting protein subcellular localization. Specifically, LocPro is unique in (a) combining protein representations from the pre-trained large language model (LLM) ESM2 and the expert-driven tool PROFEAT, (b) implementing a hybrid deep neural network architecture that integrates convolutional neural network (CNN), fully connected (FC) layer, and bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) blocks, and (c) developing a multi-label framework for predicting protein subcellular localization at multiple granularity levels. Additionally, a dataset was curated and divided using a homology-based strategy for training and validation. Comparative analyses show that LocPro outperforms existing methods in sequence-based multi-label protein subcellular localization prediction. The practical utility of this framework is further demonstrated through case studies on drug target subcellular localization. All in all, LocPro serves as a valuable complement to existing protein localization prediction tools. The web server is freely accessible at https://idrblab.org/LocPro/.
ISSN:2095-1779