Machine learning prediction of 3CL(pro) SARS-CoV-2 docking scores

Molecular docking results of two training sets containing 866 and 8,696 compounds were used to train three different machine learning (ML) approaches. Neural network approaches according to Keras and TensorFlow libraries and the gradient boosted decision trees approach of XGBoost were used with DScribe’s Smooth Overlap of Atomic Positions molecular descriptors. In addition, neural networks using the SchNetPack library and descriptors were used. The ML performance was tested on three different sets, including compounds for future organic synthesis. The final evaluation of the ML predicted docking scores was based on the ZINC in vivo set, from which 1,200 compounds were randomly selected with respect to their size. The results obtained showed a consistent ML prediction capability of docking scores, and even though compounds with more than 60 atoms were found slightly overestimated they remain valid for a subsequent evaluation of their drug repurposing suitability.