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FACT 2: new technologies have increased the no. of drugs that can be tested for
activity at these targets.
HTS is process by which large nos. of compounds are rapidly tested for their
ability to modify the properties of a selected biological target.
Goal is to identify hits or leads
- affect target in desired manner
- active at fairly low concs ( more likely to show specificity)
- new structure
The greater the no. and diversity of compounds screened, the more successful
screen is likely to be.
Knowledge gained from one drug target can be transferred to related targets.
e.g molecular technology required to work with 1 GPCR is useful for other
GPCRs, including cloning and expression systems and info on structure and
ligands.
Need 4 elements:
1) suitable libraries of compounds
Source of chemicals for screen:
- in-house collection (5x105 - 106) of diverse samples.
- supplement by acquisitions from specialist companies
- combinatorial chemistry allows synthesis of large no of diverse molecules.
1 1 D1
100-
%SB
50-
Ca2+ Ca2+
Ca2+
-60 mV Ca2+
-30 mV
Gs, Gq
Gi DISPERSED
AGGREGATED MELANOSOMES
MELANOSOMES
light
melatonin agonist
antagonist
melanophores
transfection
CMV H2-AR
Plasmid vector
(d) Reporter gene assays
Rather than measure the immediate cellular response, it may be easier to
measure the subsequent transcriptional change
3) robotics workstation
Robots handle assays in multi-well formats.
- sample dilutions
- sample dispensing
- plate washing (more problematic with higher well density (844- and 1536-
well plates))
Hard to automate cell lysis or permeabilisation steps (necessary for many 2nd
messenger responses).
Full automation allows 24 h continuous operation without requiring shift work.
More efficient and economical.
Random screening
All possible drug molecules screened against target.
Focussed screening
A limited number of compounds are pre-selected for screening.
Has proved successful as a hit generation strategy.
Useful when 3D structure of target is known (e.g. crystal structure of a receptor)
- use computer modelling to predict optimal structure to interact with target
- use known ligand to construct 3D pharmacophore
In either case, select compounds from library or design new compounds and screen.
Focussed screening will find novel hits BUT the required information may not be
available.
Diversity screening
The aim is to synthesise, access and test all the molecules that could be
drug candidates.
How many diverse samples should be tested???
Glaxo suggest a sample set of up to 500,000 molecules HTS
Diversity screening will find unexpected hits and generate data for SAR.
After 18 months, 2 chemical series still being optimised, one from each
Choice of expression system for GPCRs
Ligand binding and transduction properties are effected by cell type, receptor
density, and presence of signal transductional elements
must choose expression system carefully
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Yeast-based systems e.g. Saccharomyces cerevisiae
(also used to express protein tyrosine kinases, peptide hormones and functional ion
channels)
- May not get functional coupling of
- grow rapidly transfected GPCRs to yeast G-proteins.
- easy and cheap Overcome this by coupling GPCRs to yeast
- readily amenable to genetic manipulation
pheromone response pathway agonists
- tolerant to solvents used to dissolve drugs
promote cell growth or activity of reporter
e.g.DMSO, methanol gene construct
- may not get proper post-tranlational
modification e.g. many GPCRs are not
glycosylated in yeast, or cell surface
Bacterial cells e.g. E.coli expression.
- grow rapidly
- easy and cheap
- Low expression levels
- Some post-translational modifications not
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Baculovirus/insect cell system e.g. Sf9
cells
- GPCR might not be glycosylated
- GPCR is occasionally inactive
- high levels of expression of functional
protein
- ligand binding properties similar to
native
receptor
- can co-express receptor and
mammalian
G-proteins
- ideal for structural analysis - production of permanent cell lines may
be a difficult and lengthy process
Mammalian cells e.g. CHO, HEK - can be expensive
- receptor promiscuity (different G-
- most authentic background for proteins activated by 1 receptor
expression of GPCRs multiple signals)
protein synthesis - no. of suitable G-proteins may be
membrane insertion limited
post-translational
modification
lipid composition of
Yeast-based screen and selection for identification of agonists
for a human orphan GPCR
Yeast human
ligand ligand
Yeast human
receptor receptor
Yeast G human G
protein protein
growth
arrest
growth
orphan
receptor
peptide peptide
ligand
peptide
expression
library