申请人:——
公开号:US20020061599A1
公开(公告)日:2002-05-23
The present invention provides a molecular approach for rapidly and selectively identifying small organic molecule ligands, i.e. compounds, that are capable of interacting with and binding to specific sites on biological target molecules. The methods of the present invention are applicable to any biological target molecule that has or can be manipulated to have a metal-ion binding site. Biological target molecules are e.g. proteins, polypeptides, oligopeptides, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, nucleoproteins, glycoproteins, glycolipids, lipoproteins and derivatives thereof. More specifically, the biological target molecules include membrane receptors, signal transduction proteins, scaffolding proteins, nuclear receptors, steroid receptors, intracellular receptors, transcription factors, enzymes, allosteric enzyme regulatory proteins, growth factors, hormones, neuropeptides and immonoglobulins. A very interesting group of biological target molecules are membrane proteins such as, e.g., transmembrane protein (e.g. 7 TMs).
The methods described herein make it possible to construct and screen libraries of compounds specifically directed against predetermined epitopes on the biological target molecules. The compounds are initially constructed to be bi-functional, i.e. having both a metal-ion binding moiety, which conveys them with the ability to bind to either a natural or an artificially constructed metal-ion binding site as well as a variable moiety, which is varied chemically to probe for interactions with specific parts of the biological target molecule located spatially adjacent to the metal-ion binding site. Compounds may subsequently be further modified to bind to the unmodified biological target molecule without help of the bridging metal-ion. The methods according to the invention may be performed easily and quickly and lead to unambiguous results. The compounds identified by the methods described herein may themselves be employed for various applications or may be further derivatised or modified to provide novel compounds.
本发明提供了一种分子方法,用于快速、选择性地鉴定能够与生物靶分子上的特定位点相互作用并结合的小分子有机配体,即化合物。本发明的方法适用于任何具有或可被操纵为具有金属离子结合位点的生物靶分子。生物靶分子包括蛋白质、多肽、寡肽、核酸、碳水化合物、核蛋白、糖蛋白、糖脂、脂蛋白及其衍生物等。更具体地说,生物靶分子包括膜受体、信号转导蛋白、支架蛋白、核受体、类固醇受体、细胞内受体、转录因子、酶、异位酶调节蛋白、生长因子、激素、神经肽和单球蛋白。一类非常有趣的生物靶分子是膜蛋白,如跨膜蛋白(如 7 TM)。
本文所述的方法可以构建和筛选专门针对生物靶分子上预定表位的化合物库。最初构建的化合物具有双功能性,即既具有金属离子结合分子,使其能够与天然或人工构建的金属离子结合位点结合,又具有可变分子,可变分子通过化学变化探测与位于金属离子结合位点附近的生物靶分子特定部分的相互作用。随后,化合物可进一步改性,以便在没有桥接金属离子的帮助下与未改性的生物靶分子结合。本发明的方法简便快捷,结果明确。通过本文所述方法鉴定出的化合物本身可用于各种应用,也可进一步衍生或修饰以提供新型化合物。