Sequence and Structure-based Prediction of Allosteric Sites

Allosteric regulation in proteins is a critical aspect of cellular function, influencing various biological processes through conformational or dynamic changes induced by effector molecules. Allosteric drugs possess significant therapeutic value due to their unique advantages, such as high specificity and diverse regulatory types, yet their presence in clinical applications remains limited. Understanding the relationship between protein sequence, structure, and allosteric regulation can promote insights into allosteric mechanisms and facilitate allosteric drug design. In this review, we present an overview of marketed allosteric drugs, summarize recent computational methods for predicting allosteric sites based on protein sequences and structures, together with case studies of recent rational allosteric drug design. We also discuss challenges and future directions in computer-aided allosteric drug design, with emphasis on the potential of multi-modal data integration and interpretable deep learning models in improving allosteric site prediction and rational allosteric drug design.