Cited by 445Click Chemistry and ApplicationsComputational Drug Discovery MethodsAdvanced Proteomics Techniques and Applications

Ligand and Target Discovery by Fragment-Based Screening in Human Cells

Open access
Parker, Christopher G., Galmozzi, Andrea, Wang, Yujia, Correia, Bruno E., Sasaki, Kenji, Joslyn, Christopher M., Kim, Arthur S., Cavallaro, Cullen L. +5 more·2017·Cell

Abstract

Advances in the synthesis and screening of small-molecule libraries have accelerated the discovery of chemical probes for studying biological processes. Still, only a small fraction of the human proteome has chemical ligands. Here, we describe a platform that marries fragment-based ligand discovery with quantitative chemical proteomics to map thousands of reversible small molecule-protein interactions directly in human cells, many of which can be site-specifically determined. We show that fragment hits can be advanced to furnish selective ligands that affect the activity of proteins heretofore lacking chemical probes. We further combine fragment-based chemical proteomics with phenotypic screening to identify small molecules that promote adipocyte differentiation by engaging the poorly characterized membrane protein PGRMC2. Fragment-based screening in human cells thus provides an extensive proteome-wide map of protein ligandability and facilitates the coordinated discovery of bioactive small molecules and their molecular targets.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.cell.2016.12.029

Cites

59 of 59 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Equipping noncovalent fragments with a photoreactive diazirine moiety enables their proteome-wide target identification without prerequisite of a particular amino acid in or nearby a ligandable site.

    “Equipping noncovalent fragments with a photoreactive diazirine moiety similarly enables their proteome-wide target identification without the prerequisite of a particular amino acid in or nearby a ligandable site.98−100”
  • The authors previously introduced a strategy that integrates FBLD with chemical proteomics to globally assess small molecule-protein interactions in human cells.

    “We recently introduced a strategy that integrates FBLD with chemical proteomics to globally assess small molecule-protein interactions in human cells13.”
  • Individual FFF probes in the authors' initial studies showed substantial differences in their overall proteomic interaction profiles, which made for complicated structure-activity relationships requiring careful manual review to identify authentic fragment-protein interactions.

    “As a consequence, we found that individual FFF probes showed substantial differences in their overall proteomic interaction profiles, which made for complicated structure-activity relationships (SARs) requiring careful manual review to identify fragment-protein interactions that reflected authentic recognition events (versus simply correlating with the overall proteomic interaction profiles of the”
  • While many enantioprobe targets were also enriched by members of the original FFF probe set, these previous profiles often did not provide useful SAR information.

    “Moreover, while many of the enantioprobe targets were also enriched by members of the original FFF probe set13, these previous profiles often did not provide useful SAR information, either reflecting substantial enrichment by all of the FFF probes or mirroring the respective global protein interaction footprints of these probes (Supplementary Fig. 2).”
  • Individual FFFs showed substantially different overall protein interaction profiles in human cells, which complicated the assignment of small molecule-protein interactions displaying authentic SARs versus nonspecific binding to the FFFs.

    “Nonetheless, we also found that individual FFFs showed substantially different overall protein interaction profiles in human cells, which complicated the assignment of small molecule-protein interactions displaying authentic SARs (vs nonspecific binding to the FFFs).”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Parker, C. G., Galmozzi, A., Wang, Y., Correia, B. E., Sasaki, K., Joslyn, C. M., Kim, A. S., Cavallaro, C. L., Lawrence, R. M., Johnson, S. R., Narvaiza, I., Saez, E., & Cravatt, B. F.
Affiliations
  • Scripps Research Institute (US)
  • École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb (United States) (US)
  • Salk Institute for Biological Studies (US)
Corresponding author
  • Parker, Christopher G.
  • Cravatt, Benjamin F.
Venue
Cell
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2017-01
Volume
168
Issue
3
Pages
527-541.e29
ISSN
0092-8674 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2575838842
Cited by
439
References
59
Citations by year
2026: 29 · 2025: 44 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 55 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 52 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 29
FWCI
19.65
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cell (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
  • Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • American Cancer Society (PF-14-100-01-CDD)
  • American Heart Association (14POST18200019)
  • NIH (DK099810, CA132630, 1S10OD16357)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Click Chemistry and Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computational Theory and Mathematics › Computational Drug Discovery Methods
  • Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Advanced Proteomics Techniques and Applications
Keywords
fragment screening, chemical probes, protein-ligand interactions, human proteome, target identification, PGRMC2, adipogenesis, membrane proteins, site-specific binding, phenotypic screening, ligand discovery
MeSH terms
Cell Differentiation, Humans, Hydrolases, Ligands, Membrane Proteins, Oxidoreductases, Protein Binding, Receptors, Progesterone, Adipocytes, Crystallography, X-Ray, Proteomics, Small Molecule Libraries, Drug Discovery, High-Throughput Screening Assays

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review