Label free fragment screening using surface plasmon resonance as a tool for fragment finding - analyzing parkin, a difficult CNS target

PLoS One. 2013 Jul 5;8(7):e66879. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066879. Print 2013.

Abstract

Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) is rarely used as a primary High-throughput Screening (HTS) tool in fragment-based approaches. With SPR instruments becoming increasingly high-throughput it is now possible to use SPR as a primary tool for fragment finding. SPR becomes, therefore, a valuable tool in the screening of difficult targets such as the ubiquitin E3 ligase Parkin. As a prerequisite for the screen, a large number of SPR tests were performed to characterize and validate the active form of Parkin. A set of compounds was designed and used to define optimal SPR assay conditions for this fragment screen. Using these conditions, more than 5000 pre-selected fragments from our in-house library were screened for binding to Parkin. Additionally, all fragments were simultaneously screened for binding to two off target proteins to exclude promiscuous binding compounds. A low hit rate was observed that is in line with hit rates usually obtained by other HTS screening assays. All hits were further tested in dose responses on the target protein by SPR for confirmation before channeling the hits into Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and other hit-confirmation assays.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Dithiothreitol / chemistry
  • Dithiothreitol / metabolism
  • Drug Discovery
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays* / methods
  • Kinetics
  • Ligands
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Peptide Fragments / chemistry*
  • Peptide Fragments / metabolism
  • Protein Binding
  • Reducing Agents / chemistry
  • Reducing Agents / metabolism
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance* / methods
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / chemistry*
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / metabolism

Substances

  • Ligands
  • Peptide Fragments
  • Reducing Agents
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
  • parkin protein
  • Dithiothreitol

Grants and funding

Funding for all experiments was provided by Elan Pharmaceuticals. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript