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Updated: Jan 7, 2026

Covalent Fragment Screening Using the Quantitative Irreversible Tethering Assay
Published on: February 28, 2025
The Current Toolbox for Covalent Inhibitors: From Hit Identification to Drug Discovery.
Mengke You1,2, Hong Liu1,2,3, Chunpu Li1,2,3
1State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China.
New technologies enable targeted covalent inhibitor development for previously undruggable targets. This approach accelerates the discovery of precision covalent therapeutics, enhancing drug selectivity and overcoming resistance.
Area of Science:
- Medicinal Chemistry
- Chemical Biology
- Drug Discovery
Background:
- Covalent modification is a key strategy for developing clinical drugs and chemical probes.
- Covalent drug discovery has advanced from serendipity to rational design, aided by screening technologies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review alternative technologies for targeted covalent inhibitor development.
- To highlight methods enabling covalent inhibition of historically undruggable targets.
Main Methods:
- Activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) for identifying ligandable residues.
- Covalent tethering for capturing transient protein pockets.
- Covalent DNA-encoded libraries for multiresidue targeting.
- Phage/mRNA display for evolving covalent macrocyclic peptides.
- Sulfur-(VI) fluoride exchange (SuFEx) for engaging non-cysteine residues.
Main Results:
- Five key technologies collectively enable targeted covalent inhibitor development.
- Integration with chemoproteomics and AI accelerates discovery.
- Enhanced selectivity and reduced off-target risks are achievable.
Conclusions:
- A new paradigm for precision covalent therapeutics is established.
- These approaches offer solutions for drug resistance and challenging protein targets.
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