Discovery of ligands for Nurr1 by combined use of NMR screening with different isotopic and spin-labeling strategies

Abstract

A comprehensive approach to target screening, hit validation, and binding site determination by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is presented. NMR 19F signal perturbation was used to screen a small compound library and identify candidate ligands to the target of interest. Ligand dissociation constants were measured using a pegylated form of the protein, which resulted in a 2-fold increase in the strength of the saturation transfer difference signal. The initial small-molecule hits were further optimized by combining a residue-specific labeling strategy, to identify the specific sites of interaction with the protein, with a second site screening approach based on relaxation enhancement using a paramagnetic probe. The advantages of this combination strategy in the identification and optimization of weak binding chemical entities early in a program are illustrated with the discovery of a low micromolar ligand (Kd = 20 μM) for Nurr1 and identification of the binding site location through residue-specific 15N isotope labeling and derivatization of Cys residues with 2-mercaptoethanol-1-13C. © 2007 Society for Biomolecular Sciences.