Rapid Protein-Ligand Affinity Determination by Photoinduced Hyperpolarized NMR

J Am Chem Soc. 2024 Jul 3;146(26):17974-17985. doi: 10.1021/jacs.4c04000. Epub 2024 Jun 18.

Abstract

The binding affinity determination of protein-ligand complexes is a cornerstone of drug design. State-of-the-art techniques are limited by lengthy and expensive processes. Building upon our recently introduced novel screening method utilizing photochemically induced dynamic nuclear polarization (photo-CIDNP) NMR, we provide the methodological framework to determine binding affinities within 5-15 min using 0.1 mg of protein. The accuracy of our method is demonstrated for the affinity constants of peptides binding to a PDZ domain and fragment ligands binding to the protein PIN1. The method can also be extended to measure the affinity of nonphoto-CIDNP-polarizable ligands in competition binding experiments. Finally, we demonstrate a strong correlation between the ligand-reduced signals in photo-CIDNP-based NMR fragment screening and the well-established saturation transfer difference (STD) NMR. Thus, our methodology measures protein-ligand affinities in the micro- to millimolar range in only a few minutes and informs on the binding epitope in a single-scan experiment, opening new avenues for early stage drug discovery approaches.

MeSH terms

  • Ligands
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / methods
  • Models, Molecular
  • NIMA-Interacting Peptidylprolyl Isomerase / chemistry
  • NIMA-Interacting Peptidylprolyl Isomerase / metabolism
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular*
  • PDZ Domains
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Peptides / metabolism
  • Photochemical Processes
  • Protein Binding
  • Proteins / chemistry
  • Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • Ligands
  • NIMA-Interacting Peptidylprolyl Isomerase
  • Proteins
  • Peptides