PSCP-CNN: Protein Structural Class Prediction using a Convolutional Neural Network

The knowledge of the protein structural class is one of the most important sources of information in many biological fields, such as function analysis, protein structure, drug design, and protein folding. However, the protein structural class prediction is still a challenge when dealing with low similarity sequences. Therefore, the accuracy of the top-performing prediction methods remains unsatisfying, especially for proteins from the + ß class. This paper proposes a novel approach for Protein Structural Class Prediction using a Convolutional Neural Network (PSCP-CNN). Our approach consists of two stages. The first is the preprocessing stage which allows the preparation of the data. The second stage is a CNN classifier that automatically extracts the needed features for the classification. To evaluate the performance of our approach, we performed the jackknife test on four low similarity benchmark datasets: 25PDB, 640, 1189, and FC699. The experimental results show that PSCP-CNN achieved high prediction accuracy, where the overall accuracy on datasets 25PDB, 640, 1189, and FC699 is 93.8%, 94.5%, 94.0%, and 98.0%, respectively. Furthermore, comparing the results obtained with existing methods shows that PSCP-CNN outperforms state-of-the-art techniques and confirms that using a convolutional neural network allows a better prediction of protein structural classes.