title: Advances in parallel screening of drug candidates.
abstract: In the hit to lead process, a drug candidate is selected from a set of potential leads by screening its binding with potential targets. This review focuses on the lead identification assays that employ a bio-chemical or bio-physical test to detect molecular recognition events between proteins and small molecules in a parallel format. These tests require either the lead or the target immobilization followed by incubation with the set of potential interaction partners and detection of a signal related to the target-ligand binding. In the first part of the review the different detection strategies amenable for drug screening are discussed. In the second part, a review of immobilization approaches for leads or targets, allowing the parallel screening of arrays of molecules, is presented.
authors.affiliation: Chemistry for Technologies Laboratory and INSTM, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bergese
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cretich
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Oldani
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oliviero
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Di Carlo
authors.forename: Laura E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Depero
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chiari
mesh_terms: D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods*; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D010777:Photochemistry; D013499:Surface Properties