Universal and Quantitative Method To Evaluate Inhibitor Potency for Cysteinome Proteins Using a Nonspecific Activity-Based Protein Profiling Probe

Recently, there have been a limited number of new, validated targets for small-molecule drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry. Although there are approximately 30 000 genes in the human genome, only 2% are targeted by currently approved small-molecule drugs. One reason that many targets remain neglected by drug discovery programs is the absence of biochemical assays enabling evaluation of the potency of inhibitors in a quantitative and high-throughput manner. To overcome this issue, we developed a biochemical assay to evaluate the potency of both reversible and irreversible inhibitors using a nonspecific thiol-labeling fluorescent probe. The assay can be applied to any targets with a cysteine residue in a pocket that can accommodate small-molecule ligands. By constructing a mathematical model, we showed that the potency of compounds can be quantitatively evaluated by performing an activity-based protein profiling assay. In addition, the validity of the theory was confirmed experimentally using epidermal growth factor receptor kinase as a model target. This approach provides an assay system for targets for which biochemical assays cannot be developed. Our approach can potentially not only expand the number of exploitable targets but also accelerate the lead optimization process by providing quantitative structure-activity relationship information.