Library Screening by Means of Mass Spectrometry (MS) Binding Assays—Exemplarily Demonstrated for a Pseudostatic Library Addressing γ‐Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) Transporter 1 (GAT1)

Abstract

In the present study, the application of mass spectrometry (MS) binding assays as a tool for library screening is reported. For library generation, dynamic combinatorial chemistry (DCC) was used. These libraries can be screened by means of MS binding assays when appropriate measures are taken to render the libraries pseudostatic. That way, the efficiency of MS binding assays to determine ligand binding in compound screening with the ease of library generation by DCC is combined. The feasibility of this approach is shown for γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transporter 1 (GAT1) as a target, representing the most important subtype of the GABA transporters. For the screening, hydrazone libraries were employed that were generated in the presence of the target by reacting various sets of aldehydes with a hydrazine derivative that is delineated from piperidine-3-carboxylic acid (nipecotic acid), a common fragment of known GAT1 inhibitors. To ensure that the library generated is pseudostatic, a large excess of the nipecotic acid derivative is employed. As the library is generated in a buffer system suitable for binding and the target is already present, the mixtures can be directly analyzed by MS binding assays-the process of library generation and screening thus becoming simple to perform. The binding affinities of the hits identified by deconvolution were confirmed in conventional competitive MS binding assays performed with single compounds obtained by separate synthesis. In this way, two nipecotic acid derivatives exhibiting a biaryl moiety, 1-{2-[2'-(1,1'-biphenyl-2-ylmethylidene)hydrazine]ethyl}piperidine-3-carboxylic acid and 1-(2-{2'-[1-(2-thiophenylphenyl)methylidene]hydrazine}ethyl)piperidine-3-carboxylic acid, were found to be potent GAT1 ligands exhibiting pK(i) values of 6.186 ± 0.028 and 6.229 ± 0.039, respectively. This method enables screening of libraries, whether generated by conventional chemistry or DCC, and is applicable to all kinds of targets including membrane-bound targets such as G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), ion channels and transporters. As such, this strategy displays high potential in the drug discovery process.