High-Throughput Colorimetric Assay for Identifying PARP-1 Inhibitors Using a Large Small-Molecule Collection

Poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase 1 (PARP-1) protein became a popular target for treatment of several types of cancer. A number of PARP-1 inhibitors are currently in clinical trials. Most of them were designed competitors with NAD for a binding site on PARP-1 molecule. This strategy resulted in a discovery of mainly nucleotide-like PARP-1 inhibitors, which may target not only PARP-1 but also other pathways involving NAD and other nucleotides. Many cancer types demonstrate rapid development of resistance to NAD-like PARP-1 inhibitors. Thus, identification and characterization of new small molecules inhibit PARP-1 with high specificity and efficacy is important for the clinical research. We have proposed a new approach to screen libraries for new PARP-1 inhibitors based on histone H4-dependent PARP-1 activation. Beside identification of NAD competitors in a small molecules collection, this approach allows finding other classes of PARP-1 inhibitors that specifically disrupt H4-based PARP-1 activation or arrest inactive allosteric conformation of PARP-1. Here, we present an adaptation of this approach for a large-scale high-throughput screen.