The role of mass spectrometry in the drug discovery process.
The structure characterization of biologically-active organic compounds, developed from synthetic and natural sources, is an integral part of the drug discovery effort to identify novel therapeutic agents. Mass spectrometric methods (electrospray ionization, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization, fast atom bombardment, electron ionization and chemical ionization) are uniquely qualified to solve a wide variety of structural identification problems with high speed and accuracy. This report provides an overview of the recent developments in mass spectrometry (MS) and discusses their contribution to several areas of pharmaceutical research: the automation of MS for high-throughput analysis to support new entity research, the use of liquid chromatography (LC)-MS for mixture analysis of degradation products and drug metabolites, the expanded role of highly sensitive MS for the structure elucidation of unknown organic compounds (especially natural products), the study of peptides and proteins, and the detection of non-covalent complexes.
Pramanik
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Schering-Plough Research Institute, Kenilworth, NJ 07033, USA. birendra.pramanik@spcorp.com
Bartner
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Chen
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