Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41053181›Full record

ArticleNature communications2025

Investigating whether deep learning models for co-folding learn the physics of protein-ligand interactions.

Matthew R Masters, Amr H Mahmoud, Markus A Lill

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
66citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

66 citing papers in PubMed.

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  14. Strategic Template Filtering Accelerates Fragment-Based Peptide Docking.Journal of chemical information and modeling · 2026
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  20. Ensembles ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article

6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Matthew R MastersDepartment of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Amr H MahmoudDepartment of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Markus A LillDepartment of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. markus.lill@unibas.ch.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3023-5188

Funding

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Swiss National Science Foundation) 310030_197629
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Co-folding models represent a major innovation in deep-learning-based protein-ligand structure prediction. The recent publications of RoseTTAFold All-Atom, AlphaFold3, and others have shown high-quality results on predicting the structures of proteins interacting with small-molecules, nucleic-acids, and other proteins. Despite these advanced capabilities and broad potential, the current study presents critical findings that question the adherence of these models to fundamental physical principles. Through adversarial examples based on established physical, chemical, and biological principles, we demonstrate notable discrepancies in protein-ligand structural predictions when subjected to biologically and chemically plausible perturbations. These discrepancies reveal a significant divergence from expected physical behaviors, indicating potential overfitting to particular data features within its training corpus. Our findings underscore the models' limitations in generalizing effectively across diverse protein-ligand structures and highlight the necessity of integrating robust physical and chemical priors in the development of such predictive tools. The results advocate a measured reliance on deep-learning-based models for critical applications in drug discovery and protein engineering, where a deep understanding of the underlying physical and chemical properties is crucial.

Indexed as

Deep LearningProtein FoldingProteinsLigandsModels, MolecularProtein BindingProtein ConformationLigandsProteins

Identifiers

PMID41053181
PMCPMC12501370

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.