Development of a Medium-Throughput Targeted LCMS Assay to Detect Endogenous Cellular Levels of Malonyl-CoA to Screen Fatty Acid Synthase Inhibitors

Abstract

The fatty acid synthase (FAS) enzyme in mammalian cells is a large multidomain protein responsible for de novo synthesis of fatty acids. The steps catalyzed by FAS involve the condensation of acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA moieties in the presence of NADPH until palmitate is formed. Inhibition of FAS causes an accumulation of intracellular malonyl-CoA, as this metabolite is essentially committed to fatty acid synthesis once formed. Detection of intracellular metabolites for screening can be problematic due to a lack of appropriate tools, but here we describe a targeted liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LCMS) method to directly measure endogenous levels of malonyl-CoA to drive a drug development structure-activity relationship (SAR) screening cascade. Our process involves preparation of samples at 96-well scale, normalization postpermeabilization via use of a whole-well imaging platform, and the LCMS detection methodology. The assay is amenable to multiplexing cellular endpoints, has a typical Z′ of >0.6, and has high reproducibility of EC50 values.