PLASMOpred: A Machine Learning-Based Web Application for Predicting Antimalarial Small Molecules Targeting the Apical Membrane Antigen 1–Rhoptry Neck Protein 2 Invasion Complex

<b>Objective:</b> Falciparum malaria is a major global health concern, affecting more than half of the world's population and causing over half a million deaths annually. Red cell invasion is a crucial step in the parasite's life cycle, where the parasite invade human erythrocytes to sustain infection and ensure survival. Two parasite proteins, Apical Membrane Antigen 1 (AMA-1) and Rhoptry Neck Protein 2 (RON2), are involved in tight junction formation, which is an essential step in parasite invasion of the red blood cell. Targeting the AMA-1 and RON2 interaction with inhibitors halts the formation of the tight junction, thereby preventing parasite invasion, which is detrimental to parasite survival. This study leverages machine learning (ML) to predict potential small molecule inhibitors of the AMA-1-RON2 interaction, providing putative antimalaria compounds for further chemotherapeutic exploration. <b>Method:</b> Data was retrieved from the PubChem database (AID 720542), comprising 364,447 inhibitors and non-inhibitors of the AMA-1-RON2 interaction. The data was processed by computing Morgan fingerprints and divided into training and testing with an 80:20 ratio, and the classes in the training data were balanced using the Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique. Five ML models developed comprised Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boost Machines (GBMs), CatBoost (CB), AdaBoost (AB) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The performances of the models were evaluated using accuracy, F1 score, and receiver operating characteristic-area under the curve (ROC-AUC) and validated using held-out data and a y-randomization test. An applicability domain analysis was carried out using the Tanimoto distance with a threshold set at 0.04 to ascertain the sample space where the models predict with confidence. <b>Results:</b> The GBMs model emerged as the best, achieving 89% accuracy and a ROC-AUC of 92%. CB and RF had accuracies of 88% and 87%, and ROC-AUC scores of 93% and 91%, respectively. <b>Conclusions:</b> Experimentally validated inhibitors of the AMA-1-RON2 interaction could serve as starting blocks for the next-generation antimalarial drugs. The models were deployed as a web-based application, known as <b>PLASMOpred</b>.