Fragment screening by weak affinity chromatography: comparison with established techniques for screening against HSP90.

The increasing use of fragment-based lead discovery (FBLD) in industry as well as in academia creates a high demand for sensitive and reliable methods to detect the binding of fragments to act as starting points in drug discovery programs. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and X-ray crystallography are well-established methods for fragment finding, and thermal shift and fluorescence polarization (FP) assays are used to a lesser extent. Weak affinity chromatography (WAC) was recently introduced as a new technology for fragment screening. The study presented here compares screening of 111 fragments against the ATPase domain of HSP90 by all of these methods, with isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) used to confirm the most potent hits. The study demonstrates that WAC is comparable to the established methods of ligand-based NMR and SPR as a hit-id method, with hit correlations of 88% and 83%, respectively. The stability of HSP90 WAC columns was also evaluated and found to give 90% reproducibility even after 207 days of storage. A good correlation was obtained between the various technologies, validating WAC as an effective technology for fragment screening.

Immobilized lipodisks as model membranes in high-throughput HPLC-MS analysis.

Lipodisks, also referred to as polyethylene glycol (PEG)-stabilized bilayer disks, have previously been demonstrated to hold great potential as model membranes in drug partition studies. In this study, an HPLC-MS system with stably immobilized lipodisks is presented. Functionalized lipodisks were immobilized on two different HPLC support materials either covalently by reductive amination or by streptavidin-biotin binding. An analytical HPLC column with immobilized lipodisks was evaluated by analysis of mixtures containing 15 different drug compounds. The efficiency, reproducibility, and stability of the system were found to be excellent. In situ incorporation of cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) in immobilized lipodisks on a column was also achieved. Specific binding of COX-1 to the immobilized lipodisks was validated by interaction studies with QCM-D. These results, taken together, open up the possibility of studying ligand interactions with membrane proteins by weak affinity chromatography.

Fragment screening of cyclin G-associated kinase by weak affinity chromatography.

Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) has become a new strategy for drug discovery where lead compounds are evolved from small molecules. These fragments form low affinity interactions (dissociation constant (K(D)) = mM - µM) with protein targets, which require fragment screening methods of sufficient sensitivity. Weak affinity chromatography (WAC) is a promising new technology for fragment screening based on selective retention of fragments by a drug target. Kinases are a major pharmaceutical target, and FBDD has been successfully applied to several of these targets. In this work, we have demonstrated the potential to use WAC in combination with mass spectrometry (MS) detection for fragment screening of a kinase target-cyclin G-associated kinase (GAK). One hundred seventy fragments were selected for WAC screening by virtual screening of a commercial fragment library against the ATP-binding site of five different proteins. GAK protein was immobilized on a capillary HPLC column, and compound binding was characterized by frontal affinity chromatography. Compounds were screened in sets of 13 or 14, in combination with MS detection for enhanced throughput. Seventy-eight fragments (46 %) with K(D) < 200 µM were detected, including a few highly efficient GAK binders (K(D) of 2 µM; ligand efficiency = 0.51). Of special interest is that chiral screening by WAC may be possible, as two stereoisomeric fragments, which both contained one chiral center, demonstrated twin peaks. This ability, in combination with the robustness, sensitivity, and simplicity of WAC makes it a new method for fragment screening of considerable potential.

Weak affinity chromatography as a new approach for fragment screening in drug discovery.

Fragment-based drug design (FBDD) is currently being implemented in drug discovery, creating a demand for developing efficient techniques for fragment screening. Due to the intrinsic weak or transient binding of fragments (mM-µM in dissociation constant (K(D))) to targets, methods must be sensitive enough to accurately detect and quantify an interaction. This study presents weak affinity chromatography (WAC) as an alternative tool for screening of small fragments. The technology was demonstrated by screening of a selected 23-compound fragment collection of documented binders, mostly amidines, using trypsin and thrombin as model target protease proteins. WAC was proven to be a sensitive, robust, and reproducible technique that also provides information about affinity of a fragment in the range of 1 mM-10 µM. Furthermore, it has potential for high throughput as was evidenced by analyzing mixtures in the range of 10 substances by WAC-MS. The accessibility and flexibility of the technology were shown as fragment screening can be performed on standard HPLC equipment. The technology can further be miniaturized and adapted to the requirements of affinity ranges of the fragment library. All these features of WAC make it a potential method in drug discovery for fragment screening.

Adsorption efficiency of respirator filter cartridges for isocyanates.

In some industries, the temperature and the humidity will vary greatly between different work places, such as outdoor work in arctic or tropical climates. There is therefore a need to test respirator filters at conditions that simulate conditions that are relevant for the industries that they are used in. Filter cartridges were exposed to controlled atmospheres of varying isocyanate concentration, air humidity, and temperature in an exposure chamber. For isocyanic acid (ICA) and methyl isocyanate (MIC), the exposure concentrations were between 100 and 200 p.p.b., monitored using a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer. ICA and MIC were generated by continuous thermal degradation of urea and dimethylurea. The breakthrough was studied by collecting air samples at the outlet of the filter cartridges using impinger flasks or dry samplers with di-n-butylamine as derivatization reagent for isocyanates followed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis. For hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI), the exposure concentrations were between 4 and 20 p.p.b. and were generated by wet membrane permeation. To reveal the profile of adsorption in different layers of the respirator filters, representative samples from each of the layers were hydrolyzed. The hydrolysis products hexamethylene diamine and isophorone diamine were determined after derivatization with pentafluoropropionic anhydride (PFPA) followed by LC-MS/MS analysis. The two filter types studied efficiently absorbed both ICA and MIC. There was no trend of impaired performance throughout 48-h exposure tests. Even when the filters were exposed to high concentrations (approximately 200 p.p.b.) of ICA and MIC for 96 h, the isocyanates were efficiently absorbed with only a limited breakthrough. The majority of the HDI and IPDI (>90%) were absorbed in the top layers of the absorbant, but HDI and IPDI penetrated farther down into the respirator filters during 120 h of exposure as compared to 16 h exposure.