啤酒酵母等表达的G蛋白偶联受体在药物高通量筛选中的应用

G蛋白偶联受体具有重要的生理功能和病理意义,已成为一类重要的药物靶点。针对靶标G蛋白偶联受体从大量化合物中筛选出理想的药物,就需要开发特异且灵敏的高通量筛选体系。真核酵母细胞具有易操作、培养条件简单稳定、基因组学研究透彻、外源蛋白表达工具丰富多样、检测分析方法成熟等优点,使它成为一种理想的药物筛选工具。文章对酵母表达G蛋白偶联受体用于构建药物高通量筛选模型的研究现状和发展前景做综述。     

靶向G蛋白偶联受体高通量药物筛选技术研究进展

G蛋白偶联受体(GPCR)是临床广泛应用药物的主要靶点之一。靶向GPCR的高通量药物筛选新技术不断涌现,为发现高效、高选择性、低毒的药物提供可能,并使选择合理的GPCR药物筛选策略显得尤为重要。本文综述了靶向GPCR药物高通量筛选相关技术及策略的研究进展,主要包括基于GPCR受体配体结合、第二信使、β-arrestin、调控元件报告基因、内化、聚合体及变构调节剂等方面的高通量药物筛选技术,以及相关技术的代表性商品化产品以供参考。     

基于细胞的药物筛选

20 0 4年第 11届基于细胞测定的高通量药物筛选年会着重讨论了基于细胞筛选所取得的进展 ,并探讨了该技术相对于无细胞筛选的利弊。分子靶标的筛选　基于细胞方法已成功地应用于膜酪氨酸激酶筛选 ,该技术只用激酶区而不用完整蛋白可筛选生长因子受体酪氨酸激酶。基于细胞筛选可发现激动剂和小分子模拟物。涉及的相关技术是用分裂 增强的稀土元素荧光免疫测定(DELFIA)方法 ,灵敏地检测出细胞中胰岛素酪氨酸激酶的磷酸化作用。细胞测定法可用于不易纯化的靶标 ,如G 蛋白偶联受体 (GPCR)和离子通道。与会者介绍了一种用膜 电势 敏感荧…     

维甲酸受体为靶点的高通量药物筛选细胞模型的建立维甲酸受体为靶点的高通量药物筛选细胞模型的建立

目的建立绿色荧光蛋白(GFP)标记的以维甲酸受体为靶点的高通量药物筛选细胞模型，用于筛选治疗急性早幼粒细胞白血病(APL)、银屑病、痤疮以及肿瘤的新型药物。方法用分子生物学的方法，构建含有8个串连维甲酸受体应答元件(RARE)并连接报告基因E-GFP的重组载体。将体外培养的细胞株用该重组载体进行稳定转染，然后进行单克隆培养，最终挑选出敏感、高效、稳定表达的单克隆细胞，用于筛选针对维甲酸受体的小分子有机药物。结果建立了高效的药物筛选细胞模型。此模型筛选方法简便，适用范围广，灵敏度高，结果稳定。结论挑选出的细胞株作为药物筛选模型可用于大规模高通量药物筛选。     

G蛋白偶联受体固有活性研究进展与新药开发

G蛋白偶联受体(G-prote in-coup led receptor,GPCR)是与G蛋白有信号连接的一大类受体家族,是人体内最大的膜受体蛋白家族,是一类具有7个跨膜螺旋的跨膜蛋白受体。GPCR的结构特征和在信号传导中的重要作用决定了其可以作为很好的药物靶标。目前世界药物市场上有三分之一的小分子药物是GPCR的激活剂(agon ist)或拮抗剂(antagon ist)。以其为靶点的药物在医药产业中占据显著地位。在当今前50种最畅销的上市药物中,20%属于G蛋白受体相关药物。近来的研究发现,大多数G蛋白偶联受体具有一个很重要的特性,就是具有固有活性(Constitutive ac-tivity),即无激动剂条件受体自发的维持激活并维持下游信号传导通路的活性。固有活性涉及受体、G蛋白及下游信号通路之间的关系。该文就G蛋白偶联受体固有活性概念、研究进展、反相激动剂与固有活性研究、固有活性与新药开发4个方面,进行以下论述。     

CCK受体多态性与受体相关性药物的开发

CCK受体属于G蛋白偶联受体。CCK受体多态性可改变药物的亲和力与(或)生物学效应,其氨基酸序列的改变可能诱导非配基依赖性信号转导,从而引起疾病。随着遗传药理学的发展,多态性引起的药物与(或)受体功能的改变在新药开发中将日益受到关注。研究CCK受体的多态性可能反映G蛋白偶联受体家族的一些普遍规律。该文从分子生物学和遗传药理学角度综述了CCK受体多态性对受体功能与(或)药物效能的影响,并提出开发受体相关性药物的一些策略。     

与类风湿关节炎相关的G蛋白偶联受体及治疗药物作用靶点

很多胞外信号直接或间接通过G蛋白偶联受体向胞内传输。多种G蛋白偶联受体包括趋化因子受体、前列腺素(prostaglandins,PGs)受体、β2-肾上腺素受体(β2-adrener-gicreceptor)、致炎肽P物质(proinflammatorypeptidesub-stanceP,SP)受体、蛋白酶活化受体2(protease-activatedre-ceptor2,PAR-2)等在免疫应答调节中起至关重要的作用。该文综述了与类风湿关节炎相关的G蛋白偶联受体(Gpro-tein-coupledreceptors,GPCRs)信号转导的一些蛋白作用,包括G蛋白偶联受体激酶、视紫红质抑制蛋白(arrestin)、G蛋白信号转导调节因子、G蛋白偶联致炎受体等。作用于这些信号或其转导过程的药物正成为类风湿关节炎治疗的新策略之一。     

GPCR-Gα融合蛋白及其在oGPCRs配基筛选中的应用

GPCRGα融合蛋白是近几年用于受体研究的新颖手段之一,它的表达确保了受体与G蛋白之间1∶1的化学计量关系、空间位置上的邻近性及适宜于高通量的配基筛选,使其为孤儿G蛋白偶联受体提供了一种新的研究策略,将在孤儿受体的配基筛选中发挥重要作用,对研发以oGPCR为作用靶点的新药产生积极意义。     

G蛋白偶联受体激酶活性调控与细胞炎性损伤

G蛋白偶联受体激酶 (Gprotein coupledreceptorki nases,GRKs)不仅调节G蛋白偶联受体 (GPCR)磷酸化、介导受体脱敏 ,使信号效应降低或消失 ,而且也调节G蛋白和靶细胞骨架 ,同时它还受到蛋白激酶A(PKA)、蛋白激酶C(PKC)、肌动蛋白和细胞内第二信使钙离子等调节。组织细胞表面存在多种GPCR如血小板活化因子 (PAF)受体、组胺受体、凝血酶受体等 ,介导炎性介质所致细胞损伤的信号转导作用。GRKs磷酸化GPCR ,在炎症诱导细胞损伤过程中起一定调控作用     

毒蕈胆碱M_1受体激动剂的高通量筛选模型

目的　建立毒蕈碱样胆碱M1 受体激动剂的高通量筛选模型 ,以此模型进行M1 受体激动剂筛选。方法　将M1 受体基因质粒 (M1 /pCDNA3 1 )与报告基因质粒 (3×CRE/ 3×MRE/SRE LUC)按 1∶5的比例共转染HEK2 93 ,建立了一个稳定的M1 受体激动剂报告基因筛选细胞株。配体与细胞表面M1 受体结合后 ,激活相应的信号通路 ,调节报告基因的表达 ,通过测定荧光酶素报告基因表达水平的变化 ,评估配体激活M1 受体的生物活性。结果　通过对筛选条件 ,如细胞数目、荧光素酶表达时间、底物浓度的优化 ,建立了可靠的筛选方法 ,并对多种抗衰老中药水提物进行了筛选 ,找到 3种对M1 受体有活性的中药。结论　该系统能准确、稳定、有效地应用于M1 受体激动剂的高通量筛选     

Assay in high throughput screening

HTS (High Throughput Screening) has been put into practice in recent years. HTS is aiming to discover lead compounds for medicinal drugs. High efficiency must be achieved in all the processes including sample preparation, assay procedure, automation and data management. This review will focus on the aspects concerned with the assay technology and the efficiency in HTS. One of the major trends in HTS is assay miniaturization using high-density microplates with 384 and 1536 wells. This allows us to increase the throughput and to decrease the cost. The so-called "mix and measure" or "homogeneous" assay system, which has no separation steps such as washing or filtration, is effective for this purpose. The homogeneous assays, such as scintillation proximity assay (SPA), fluorescence energy transfer (HTRF, LANCE) and fluorescence polarization (FP), are frequently used. The reporter gene assay or the cell proliferation assay can be adapted for the homogeneous assay using high-density plates. In addition, HTS measuring the intracellular Ca2+ influx is also possible using a CCD Imager. The assay quality as well as the efficiency is also important especially in HTS. The Z'-factor provides a good tool for evaluating the quality of assays.     

A dual-readout F2 assay that combines fluorescence resonance energy transfer and fluorescence polarization for monitoring bimolecular interactions

F?rster (fluorescence) resonance energy transfer (FRET) and fluorescence polarization (FP) are widely used technologies for monitoring bimolecular interactions and have been extensively used in high-throughput screening (HTS) for probe and drug discovery. Despite their popularity in HTS, it has been recognized that different assay technologies may generate different hit lists for the same biochemical interaction. Due to the high cost of large-scale HTS campaigns, one has to make a critical choice to employee one assay platform for a particular HTS. Here we report the design and development of a dual-readout HTS assay that combines two assay technologies into one system using the Mcl-1 and Noxa BH3 peptide interaction as a model system. In this system, both FP and FRET signals were simultaneously monitored from one reaction, which is termed "Dual-Readout F(2) assay" with F(2) for FP and FRET. This dual-readout technology has been optimized in a 1,536-well ultra-HTS format for the discovery of Mcl-1 protein inhibitors and achieved a robust performance. This F(2) assay was further validated by screening a library of 102,255 compounds. As two assay platforms are utilized for the same target simultaneously, hit information is enriched without increasing the screening cost. This strategy can be generally extended to other FP-based assays and is expected to enrich primary HTS information and enhance the hit quality of HTS campaigns.     

Cellular HTS assays for pharmacological characterization of Na(V)1.7 modulators

Ion channels are challenging targets in the early phases of the drug discovery process, especially because of the lack of technologies available to screen large numbers of compounds in functionally relevant assays. The electrophysiological patch-clamp technique, which is the gold standard for studying ion channels, has low throughput and is not amenable to screening large numbers of compounds. However, for random high-throughput screening (HTS) of compounds against ion channel targets, a number of functional cellular assays have become available during the last few years. Here we use the sodium channel NaV1.7 stably expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells and compare three HTS assays-a Li flux atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) assay, a fluorescent imaging plate reader (FLIP, Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA) membrane potential assay, and a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based membrane potential assay-to an automated electrophysiological assay (the Ionworks HT [Molecular Devices] platform) and characterize 11 known NaV inhibitors. Our results show that all three HTS assays are suitable for identification of NaV1.7 inhibitors, but as an HTS assay the Li-AAS assay is more robust with higher Z' values than the FLIPR and FRET-based membrane potential assays. Furthermore, there was a better correlation between the Ionworks assay and the Li-AAS assay regarding the potency of the NaV inhibitors investigated. This paper describes the first comparison between all the HTS assays available today to study voltage-gated NaVs, and the results suggest that the Li-AAS assay is more suited as a first HTS assay when starting an NaV drug discovery campaign.     

Application of division arrest technology to cell-based HTS: comparison with frozen and fresh cells

Cell-based functional assays are becoming popular in many HTS laboratories because of recent advances in detection and automation technologies. However, the supply of large amounts of live cells with consistent cellular response for day-to-day screening operations over several days/weeks is a tremendous challenge. The high cost of cell culture, labor-intensive nature of the work, and inherent variability in cellular responses from time to time tend to be prohibitive for extensive applications of cell-based assays in HTS. We therefore tested division-arrested cells that were prepared in a single batch and frozen at -80 degrees C before use in several cell-based assays and in a robotic screening campaign. Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing a Gq-coupled receptor were analyzed for the agonist-induced intracellular Ca2+ response measured on a fluorescent imaging plate reader. In this case, the division-arrested cells showed consistent agonist-induced intracellular Ca2+ concentration response as reflected by signal-to-basal ratio and EC50 even 48 h after cell plating. In comparison, the responses from untreated frozen cells and fresh cells declined significantly approximately 30 h after cell plating. In other cell-based assays tested (cyclic AMP assay, reporter gene beta-lactamase assay, and ion-channel assay), the division-arrested cells performed as well as frozen, or fresh cells. We thus conclude that the use of alternate strategies such as frozen cells or division-arrested cells may alleviate the need for several batches of cell plating each day during HTS while maintaining the desired robotic throughput and assay quality.     

High-throughput screening with quantitation of ATP consumption: a universal non-radioisotope, homogeneous assay for protein kinase

A number of assays have been developed for high-throughput screening (HTS) of potentially bioactive compounds. To screen millions of chemical compounds efficiently, the best detection technology prior to initiating HTS must be chosen. Ideally, a non-radioisotope (non-RI), homogeneous method, equivalent to the most reliable assay for a particular target, should be selected as an HTS method. Protein kinases are among the most important classes for drug discovery because they participate in various signaling pathways. Several HTS technologies are available for kinase activity: SPA (Amersham, Piscataway, NJ, U.S.A.), HTRF (CIS-US, Inc., Bedford, MA, U.S.A.), IMAP (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA, U.S.A.), and Z'-LYTE (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, U.S.A.). The amount of phosphorylated product is detected by different methods in these assays. Recently, Kinase-Glo Luminescent Kinase Assay, a non-RI, homogeneous, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) quantitative kit useful for kinase activity detection, has become available from Promega (Madison, WI, U.S.A.). ATP is a universal substrate for kinases. Thus, the Kinase-Glo assay shows promise for becoming the primary method of determining kinase activity in HTS. We have developed a Kinase-Glo system for cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (Cdk4), and compare its results with those of the filtration method, the most reliable assay for in vitro Cdk4 activity. In addition, the reliability and sensitivity of the Kinase-Glo are discussed.     

Current in vitro kinase assay technologies: the quest for a universal format

The rapidly growing interest in kinases as drug targets has prompted the development of many kinase assay technologies. These technologies can be grouped into three categories: radiometric assays, phospho-antibody-dependent fluorescence/luminescence assays, and phospho-antibody-independent fluorescence/luminescence assays. This article will review some of the major kinase assay technologies on the market, with particular emphasis on the newest systems. We will describe the physical principles, the practical advantages and drawbacks, and the potential applications of these technologies in kinase drug discovery. Most of these technologies are suitable for HTS, but only a few can be utilized for kinetic and mechanistic studies. Significant progress towards development of generic assays, free of radioisotopes and custom reagents such as phospho-specific antibodies, has been made in recent years. However, due to various limitations of each format, none of these generic assay technologies can yet claim to be truly universal. Several factors, including the intended applications, cost, timeline, expertise, familiarity, and comfort level, should be considered prior to pursuing a particular kinase assay technology.     

Integrative functional assays, chemical genomics and high throughput screening: harnessing signal transduction pathways to a common HTS readout

Chemical genomics is a drug discovery strategy that relies heavily on high-throughput screening (HTS) and therefore benefits from functional assay platforms that allow HTS against all relevant genomic targets. Receptor Selection and Amplification Technology (R-SAT) is a cell-based, high-throughput functional assay where the receptor stimulus is translated into a measurable cellular response through an extensive signaling cascade occurring over several days. The large biological and chronological separation of stimulus from response provides numerous opportunities for enabling assays and increasing assay sensitivity. Here we review strategies for building homogeneous assay platforms across large gene families by redirecting and/or amplifying signal transduction pathways.     

High throughput screening assay for UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 glucuronidation profiling

Development of high throughput screening (HTS) assays for evaluation of a compound's toxicity and potential for drug-drug interactions is a critical step towards production of better drug candidates and cost reduction in the drug development process. HTS assays for drug metabolism mediated by cytochrome P450s are now routinely used in compound library characterization and for computer modeling studies. However, development and application of HTS assays involving UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) are lagging behind. Here we describe the development of a fluorescence-based HTS assay for UGT1A1 using recombinant enzyme and fluorescent substrate in the presence of an aqueous solution of PreserveX-QML (QBI Life Sciences, Madison, WI) polymeric micelles, acting as a stabilizer and a blocker of nonspecific interactions. The data include assay characteristics in 384-well plate format obtained with robotic liquid handling equipment and structures of hits (assay modifiers) obtained from the screening of a small molecule library at the University of Wisconsin HTS screening facility. The application of the assay for predicting UGT-related drug-drug interactions and building pharmacophore models, as well as the effects of polymeric micelles on the assay performance and compound promiscuity, is discussed.     

Type I methionine aminopeptidase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a potential target for antifungal drug screening

INTRODUCTION Methionine aminopeptidase (MetAP), existing inboth prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, plays an impor-tant role in removing the first methionine from nascentpolypeptides[1,2]. Up to now, two major isoforms ofMetAP (type I and type II MetAPs) have been identified[3].Eubacteria has only type I MetAP, and archaea has onlytype II MetAP, while eukaryotic cells contain both typesof MetAPs[1]. MetAPs are organized in a similar ‘pita-bread’ conformation as characteriz…     

Technological Advances in High-Throughput Screening

High-throughput screening (HTS) is the process of testing a large number of diverse chemical structures against disease targets to identify 'hits'. Compared to traditional drug screening methods, HTS is characterized by its simplicity, rapidness, low cost, and high efficiency, taking the ligand-target interactions as the principle, as well as leading to a higher information harvest. As a multidisciplinary field, HTS involves an automated operation-platform, highly sensitive testing system, specific screening model (in vitro), an abundant components library, and a data acquisition and processing system. Various technologies, especially the novel technologies such as fluorescence, nuclear-magnetic resonance, affinity chromatography, surface plasmon resonance, and DNA microarray, are now available, and the screening of more than 100,000 samples per day is already possible. Fluorescence-based assays include the scintillation proximity assay, time-resolved energy transfer, fluorescence anisotropy, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, and fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy. Fluorescence-based techniques are likely to be among the most important detection approaches used for HTS due to their high sensitivity and amenability to automation, giving the industry-wide drive to simplify, miniaturize, and speed up assays. The application of NMR technology to HTS is another recent trend in drug research. One advantage afforded by NMR technology is that it can provide direct information on the affinity of the screening compounds and the binding location of protein. The structure-activity relationship acquired from NMR analysis can sharpen the library design, which will be very important in furnishing HTS with well-defined drug candidates. Affinity chromatography used for library screening will provide the information on the fundamental processes of drug action, such as absorption, distribution, excretion, and receptor activation; also the eluting curve can give directly the possibility of candidate drug. SPR can measure the quantity of a complex formed between two molecules in real-time without the need for fluorescent or radioisotopic labels. SPR is capable of characterizing unmodified biopharmaceuticals, studying the interaction of drug candidates with macromolecular targets, and identifying binding partners during ligand fishing experiments. DNA microarrays can be used in HTS be used to further investigate the expression of biological targets associated with human disease, which then opens new and exciting opportunities for drug discovery. Without doubt, the addition of new technologies will further increase the application of HTS in drug screening and its related fields.