Enzyme inhibitors that form covalent bonds with their targets are being increasingly pursued in drug development. Assessing their biochemical activity relies on time-dependent assays, which are distinct and more complex compared with methods commonly employed for reversible-binding inhibitors. To provide general guidance to the covalent inhibitor development community, we explored methods and reported kinetic values and experimental factors in determining the biochemical activity of various covalent epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors. We showcase how liquid handling and assay reagents impact kinetic parameters and potency interpretations, which are critical for structure−kinetic relationships and covalent drug design. Additionally, we include benchmark kinetic values with reference inhibitors, which are imperative, as covalent EGFR inhibitor kinetic values are infrequently consistent in the literature. This overview seeks to inform best practices for developing new covalent inhibitors and highlight appropriate steps to address gaps in knowledge presently limiting assay reliability and reproducibility.
A blog highlighting recent publications in the area of covalent modification of proteins, particularly relating to covalent-modifier drugs. @CovalentMod on Twitter, @covalentmod@mstdn.science on Mastodon, and @covalentmod.bsky.social on BlueSky
Saturday, December 23, 2023
Pitfalls and Considerations in Determining the Potency and Mutant Selectivity of Covalent Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitors
Kristopher W. Hoyt, Daniel A. Urul, Blessing C. Ogboo, Florian Wittlinger, Stefan A. Laufer, Erik M. Schaefer, Earl W. May, and David E. Heppner
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2024
State-of-the-art covalent virtual screening with AlphaFold3
Yoav Shamir, Nir London bioRxiv 2025.03.19.642201; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.19.642201 Recent years have seen an explosion in the...
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DOI Ansgar Oberheide, Maxime van den Oetelaar, Jakob Scheele, Jan Borggräfe, Semmy Engelen, Michael Sattler, Christian Ottmann, ...
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Mariko Takahashi, Harrison B. Chong,Siwen Zhang, Tzu-Yi Yang,Matthew J. Lazarov,Stefan Harry,Michelle Maynard, Brendan Hilbert,Ryan D. White...
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Özge Ünsal, Z. Selin Bacaksiz, Vladislav Khamraev, Vittorio Montanari, Martin Beinborn, and Krishna Kumar ACS Chemical Biology 2024 DOI: ...