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Development of a complex scintillation proximity assay for high-throughput screening of PPARgamma modulators
Bin Wu1, Jie Gao, Ming-wei Wang
1The National Center for Drug Screening, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China.
Aim:
To develop a complex high-throughput screening (HTS) assay based on scintillation proximity assay (SPA) technology for identification of novel peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) modulators.
Methods:
Full-length PPARgamma and retinoid X receptor alpha (RXRalpha), biotinylated PPAR response element (PPRE), [3H]BRL49653 and streptavidin-coated FlashPlate or microbead were used to develop an HTS assay based on SPA technology. This 'ABCDE' method was validated against conventional hydroxyapatite (HA) assay and applied to large-scale screening of 16,000 synthetic compounds and natural product extracts.
Results:
(1) IC50 values of positive control compounds (BRL49653 and troglitazone) obtained from the 'ABCDE' method and HA assay were comparable and consistent with those reported elsewhere; (2) Approximately 178 compounds, showing more than 70% competitive inhibition on BRL49653 binding to PPARgamma, were identified initially by the 'ABCDE' method (microbead); (3) Secondary screening using FlashPlate and cross-reactivity studies with RARalpha, beta, gamma and RXRalpha,beta, gamma confirmed that 12 compounds possessed specific PPARgamma binding properties including 2 with IC50 values less than 0.5 micromol/L and novel chemical structures.
Conclusions:
The 'ABCDE' method using either FlashPlate or microbead, is a highly efficient, automatable, and robust tool to screen potential PPARgamma modulators in HTS setting. Its application may be expanded to other nuclear receptors that form heterodimers upon activation.
