Advances in screening enzyme inhibitors by capillary electrophoresis

Enzymes are proteins with highly specific catalytic activities that are closely associated with physiological processes such as metabolism and signal transduction, and serve as crucial targets in drug research. Enzyme inhibitors are important sources of lead molecules for drug development. The development of rapid, accurate, and reliable screening methods is highly important in drug research. Capillary electrophoresis (CE), with unique advantages such as a mild buffer system, diverse separation modes, short analysis time, and low sample consumption, has become one of the most powerful tools for screening enzyme inhibitors. This review systematically summarizes the research progress on the use of CE in enzyme inhibitor screening from 2019 to 2024, which is based on two modes of homogeneous and heterogeneous systems, and discusses the prospects of the technical challenges and development trends in this field to provide technical support for enzyme-targeted drug research and development.