Prediction of antimicrobial peptides based on the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system application

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are widely distributed defense molecules and represent a promising alternative for solving the problem of antibiotic resistance. Nevertheless, the experimental time required to screen putative AMPs makes computational simulations based on peptide sequence analysis and/or molecular modeling extremely attractive. Artificial intelligence methods acting as simulation and prediction tools are of great importance in helping to efficiently discover and design novel AMPs. In the present study, state-of-the-art published outcomes using different prediction methods and databases were compared to an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model. Data from our study showed that ANFIS obtained an accuracy of 96.7% and a Matthew's Correlation Coefficient (MCC) of0.936, which proved it to be an efficient model for pattern recognition in antimicrobial peptide prediction. Furthermore, a lower number of input parameters were needed for the ANFIS model, improving the speed and ease of prediction. In summary, due to the fuzzy nature ofAMP physicochemical properties, the ANFIS approach presented here can provide an efficient solution for screening putative AMP sequences and for exploration of properties characteristic of AMPs.