Major Improvements in Robustness and Efficiency during the Screening of Novel Enzyme Effectors by the 3-Point Kinetics Assay

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2021

Authors

Maria Filipa Pinto (Author) Other; Francisco Figueiredo (Author) Other; Alexandra Silva (Author) Other; António R. Pombinho (Author) Other; Pedro José Barbosa Pereira (Author) Other; Sandra Macedo Ribeiro (Author) Other; Fernando Rocha (Author) FEUP; Pedro M. Martins (Author) Other

Journal

Title: SLAS Discovery

Vol. 26 No. 3

Pages: 373-382

ISSN: 2472-5552

Publisher: SAGE

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 0 Citations

Scopus - 0 Citations

Associated Projects

LEPABE - Financiamento Plurianual 2020-2023 da Unidade de I&D LEPABE - Laboratório de Engenharia de Processos, Ambiente, Biotecnologia e Energia

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00S-S7Q

DOI: 10.1177/2472555220958386

Abstract (EN): The throughput level currently reached by automatic liquid handling and assay monitoring techniques is expected to facilitate the discovery of new modulators of enzyme activity. Judicious and dependable ways to interpret vast amounts of information are, however, required to effectively answer this challenge. Here, the 3-point method of kinetic analysis is proposed as a means to significantly increase the hit success rates and decrease the number of falsely identified compounds (false positives). In this post-Michaelis-Menten approach, each screened reaction is probed in three different occasions, none of which necessarily coincide with the initial period of constant velocity. Enzymology principles rather than subjective criteria are applied to identify unwanted outliers such as assay artifacts, and then to accurately distinguish true enzyme modulation effects from false positives. The exclusion and selection criteria are defined based on the 3-point reaction coordinates, whose relative positions along the time-courses may change from well to well or from plate to plate, if necessary. The robustness and efficiency of the new method is illustrated during a small drug repurposing screening of potential modulators of the deubiquinating activity of ataxin-3, a protein implicated in Machado-Joseph disease. Apparently, intractable Z factors are drastically enhanced after (1) eliminating spurious results, (2) improving the normalization method, and (3) increasing the assay resilience to systematic and random variability. Numerical simulations further demonstrate that the 3-point analysis is highly sensitive to specific, catalytic, and slow-onset modulation effects that are particularly difficult to detect by typical endpoint assays.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 10