Peptide Design through Binding Interface Mimicry

Peptides offer distinct advantages for targeted therapy, including oral bioavailability, cellular permeability, and high specificity, which set them apart from conventional small molecules and biologics. In this work, we developed an AI algorithm, named PepMimic, to transform a known protein receptor or an existing antibody of a target into a short peptide drug by mimicking the binding interfaces between targets and known binders. The structural root mean square deviation and interface DockQ with reference binders were 61% and 75% better than the best existing methods on the PepBench datasets. We then applied this novel peptide-design methodology to five drug targets: PD-L1, CD38, BCMA, HER2, and CD4. SPRi results show that 8% of the peptides exhibited dissociation constant (KD) values at the 10 nanomolar level, and 26 peptides achieving KD values as low as single-digit nanomolar. This success rate was 20,000 times higher than that observed in a random library screening conducted under identical conditions. PepMimic was applied to target proteins lacking available binders by first utilizing AI algorithms to design protein binders, followed by the generation of peptides through simulation of these artificial interfaces. The top-ranked peptides underwent extensive cellular validation and in vivo testing through tail vein injections in breast, myeloma, and lung tumor mouse models. Experimental results demonstrated effective membrane binding and highlighted the strong potential of these peptides for clinical diagnostic imaging and targeted therapeutic applications.