High-Throughput Mechanism of Inhibition

High-throughput kinetics in drug discovery

The importance of a drug's kinetic profile and interplay of structure-kinetic activity with PK/PD has long been appreciated in drug discovery. However, technical challenges have often limited detailed kinetic characterization of compounds to the latter stages of projects. This review highlights the advances that have been made in recent years in techniques, instrumentation, and data analysis to increase the throughput of detailed kinetic and mechanistic characterization, enabling its application earlier in the drug discovery process.

Discovery of a Novel Potent and Selective HSD17B13 Inhibitor, BI-3231, a Well-Characterized Chemical Probe Available for Open Science

Genome-wide association studies in patients revealed HSD17B13 as a potential new target for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and other liver diseases. However, the physiological function and the disease-relevant substrate of HSD17B13 remain unknown. In addition, no suitable chemical probe for HSD17B13 has been published yet. Herein, we report the identification of the novel potent and selective HSD17B13 inhibitor BI-3231. Through high-throughput screening (HTS), using estradiol as substrate, compound 1 was identified and selected for subsequent optimization resulting in compound 45 (BI-3231). In addition to the characterization of compound 45 for its functional, physicochemical, and drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic (DMPK) properties, NAD⁺ dependency was investigated. To support Open Science, the chemical HSD17B13 probe BI-3231 will be available to the scientific community for free via the opnMe platform, and thus can help to elucidate the pharmacology of HSD17B13.