Application of small molecule microarrays in comparative chemical proteomics

Abstract

The simultaneous identification of disease-specific protein targets and their small molecule-binding partners, suitable as drug candidates, could radically reduce the timeline and costs of drug discovery and development. Comparative chemical proteomics provides a novel approach to achieve this goal through rapid detection of overexpressed proteins in diseased samples by the application of small molecule microarrays. The interacting small molecules enable direct affinity-based isolation and identification of the proteins. In the present paper we report comparative chemical proteomics studies on melanocytes and melanoma cell-lines, which led to the identification of three overexpressed proteins together with their small molecule-binding partner. © 2006 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.