Prediction and verification of novel peptide targets of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B

Phosphotyrosine peptides are useful starting points for inhibitor design and for the search for protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) phosphoprotein substrates. To identify novel phosphopeptide substrates of PTP1B, we developed a computational prediction protocol based on a virtual library of protein sequences with known phosphotyrosine sites. To these we applied sequence-based methods, biologically meaningful filters and molecular docking. Five peptides were selected for biochemical testing of their potential as PTP1B substrates. All five peptides were equally good substrates for PTP1B compared to a known peptide substrate whereas appropriate control peptides were not recognized, showing that our protocol can be used to identify novel peptide substrates of PTP1B.