Labeled Ligand Displacement: Extending NMR-Based Screening of Protein Targets

NMR spectroscopy has enjoyed widespread success as a method for screening protein targets, especially in the area of fragment-based drug discovery. However, current methods for NMR-based screening all suffer certain limitations. Two-dimensional methods like "SAR by NMR" require isotopically labeled protein and are limited to proteins less than about 50 kDa. For one-dimensional, ligand-based methods, results can be confounded by nonspecific compound binding, resonance overlap, or the need for a special NMR probe. We present here a ligand-based method that relies on the exchange broadening observed for a (13)C-labeled molecule upon binding to a protein target (labeled ligand displacement). This method can be used to screen both individual compounds and mixtures and is free of the artifacts inherent in other ligand-based methods.