Automated multiple ligand screening by frontal affinity chromatography-mass spectrometry (FAC-MS).
High-throughput screening (HTS) efforts to discover "hits" typically rely on the large-scale parallel screening of individual compounds with attempts to screen mixtures of compounds typically and, unfortunately, giving rise to false positives and false negatives due to the nature of the HTS readout (% inhibition/activation above a defined threshold) that makes deconvolution virtually intractable. Bioaffinity screening methods have emerged as an alternative or orthogonal method to classic HTS. One of these methods, frontal affinity chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry detection (FAC-MS), although still a relatively new technique, is turning out to be a viable screening tool. However, to push FAC-MS more to the forefront as a moderate primary HTS system (or a secondary screening assay), automation needs to be addressed. An automated FAC-MS system is described using 2 columns containing immobilized hERbeta, whereby while 1 column is being regenerated, the other is being used. The authors are extrapolating that in a continuous 24-h operation, the number of ligands screened could potentially approach 10,000. In addition, preliminary structure-activity relationship binding information (typically not seen in early primary HTS) can be obtained by observing the rank order of the library members in the various mixtures.
Ng
William
W
Transition Therapeutics Inc, Drug Discovery Group, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Dai
Jin-Rui
JR
Slon-Usakiewicz
Jacek J
JJ
Redden
Peter R
PR
Pasternak
Andrew
A
Reid
Neil
N
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D001331:Automation; D002846:Chromatography, Affinity / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D047629:Estrogen Receptor beta / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006639:Histidine / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012694:Serine / Q000378:metabolism
D047629:Estrogen Receptor beta; D008024:Ligands; D012694:Serine; D006639:Histidine