High-Throughput Cellular Thermal Shift Assay Using Acoustic Transfer of Protein Lysates

ACS Chem Biol. 2022 Feb 18;17(2):322-330. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.1c00760. Epub 2022 Feb 4.

Abstract

Cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) is a valuable method to confirm target engagement within a complex cellular environment, by detecting changes in a protein's thermal stability upon ligand binding. The classical CETSA method measures changes in the thermal stability of endogenous proteins using immunoblotting, which is low-throughput and laborious. Reverse-phase protein arrays (RPPAs) have been demonstrated as a detection modality for CETSA; however, the reported procedure requires manual processing steps that limit throughput and preclude screening applications. We developed a high-throughput CETSA using an acoustic RPPA (HT-CETSA-aRPPA) protocol that is compatible with 96- and 384-well microplates from start-to-finish, using low speed centrifugation to remove thermally destabilized proteins. The utility of HT-CETSA-aRPPA for guiding structure-activity relationship studies was demonstrated for inhibitors of lactate dehydrogenase A. Additionally, a collection of kinase inhibitors was screened to identify compounds that engage MEK1, a clinically relevant kinase target.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural

MeSH terms

  • Acoustics
  • Biological Assay
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays* / methods
  • Protein Array Analysis
  • Proteins*

Substances

  • Proteins