Screening for inhibitors of dihydrofolate reductase using pulsed ultrafiltration mass spectrometry

A method of screening combinatorial libraries for inhibitors of eukaryotic dihydrofolate reductase has been developed using pulsed ultra-filtration electrospray mass spectrometry, which is a continuous-flow affinity separation system for extracting and identifying high affinity ligands in combinatorial libraries. In this application, pulsed ultrafiltration conditions were optimized for the isolation and identification of inhibitors of dihydrofolate reductase from a 22 compound library containing six known inhibitors of the enzyme including trimethoprim, aminopterin, methotrexate, pyrimethamine, folic acid, and folinic acid, and 16 compounds without known affinity. In order to optimize the screening method, sources of non-specific binding were identified and minimized. A significant source of non-specific binding for this set of library compounds was hydrophobic interaction with the surfaces of the ultrafiltration chamber. After affinity separation of bound (high affinity) versus free (low affinity) library compounds during pulsed ultrafiltration, receptor-bound ligands were released and eluted using either organic solvent or acidified mobile phase. Although 80% methanol easily disrupted the receptor-ligand complexes, organic solvent had the undesirable effect of releasing non-specifically bound compounds from the chamber and thereby increasing the background noise. Interference from non-specific binding was minimized by releasing bound ligands using a low pH mobile phase eluent instead of organic solvent. Under the conditions used, pulsed ultrafiltration mass spectrometry selectively identified the two library compounds with the highest affinity for dihydrofolate reductase, methotrexate and aminopterin.