Kinetic identification of protein ligands in a 51,200 small-molecule library using microarrays and a label-free ellipsometric scanner

Drug discovery begins by identifying protein-small molecule binding pairs. Afterwards, binding kinetics and biofunctional assays are performed, to reduce candidates for further development. High-throughput screening, typically employing fluorescence, is widely used to find protein ligands in small-molecule libraries, but is rarely used for binding kinetics measurement because: (1) attaching fluorophores to proteins can alter kinetics and (2) most label-free technologies for kinetics measurement are inherently low-throughput and consume expensive sensing surfaces. We addressed this need with polarization-modulated ellipsometric scanning microscopes, called oblique-incidence reflectivity difference (OI-RD). Label-free ligand screening and kinetics measurement are performed simultaneously on small-molecule microarrays printed on relatively inexpensive isocyanate-functionalized glass slides. As a microarray is reacted, an OI-RD microscope tracks the change in surface-bound macromolecule density in real-time at every spot. We report progress applying OI-RD to screen purified proteins and virus particles against a 51,200-compound library from the National Cancer Institute. Four microarrays, each containing 12,800 library compounds, are installed in four flow cells in an automated OI-RD microscope. The slides are reacted serially, each giving 12,800 binding curves with ∼30 sec time resolution. The entire library is kinetically screened against a single probe in ∼14 hours and multiple probes can be reacted sequentially under automation. Real-time binding detection identifies both high-affinity and low-affinity (transient binding) interactions; fluorescence endpoint images miss the latter. OI-RD and microarrays together is a powerful high-throughput tool for early stage drug discovery and development. The platform also has great potential for downstream steps such as in vitro inhibition assays.