Protein-templated fragment ligations - from molecular recognition to drug discovery
The understanding and manipulation of molecular recognition events is the key to modern approaches in drug discovery. Protein-templated fragment ligation is a novel concept to support drug discovery and can help to improve the efficacy of already existing protein ligands. Protein-templated fragment ligations are chemical reactions between small molecules ("fragments") that utilize a proteinīs surface as a template to combine and to form a protein ligand with increased binding affinity. The approach exploits the molecular recognition of reactive small molecule fragments by proteins both for ligand assembly and for the identification of bioactive fragment combinations. Chemical synthesis and bioassay are thus integrated in one single step. In this article we portrait the biophysical basis of reversible and irreversible fragment ligations and the available methods to detect protein-templated ligation products. The scope of known chemical reactions providing templated ligation products is reviewed and the possibilities to extend the reaction portfolio are discussed. Selected recent applications of the method in protein ligand discovery are reported. Finally, the strengths and limitations of the concept are discussed and an outlook on the future impact of templated fragment ligations on the drug discovery process is given.
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