Patent ID: 6649415
Filing Date: 2003-11-18
Classification: B01J,C40B,G01N,H01J,Y10T

Abstract:
A method for screening a plurality of compound libraries to determine the relative affinity of a plurality of putative ligands in each library to a target receptor or a plurality of target receptors, which method comprises:(a) providing a plurality of compound libraries, each library comprising a plurality of putative ligands, (b) applying each compound library to a separate column of a plurality of columns, said separate column comprising at least one target receptor, each target receptor selected from proteins, peptides, glycoproteins, glycosaminoglycans, proteoglycans, integrins, enzymes, lectins, selecting, cell-adhesion molecules, toxins, transport proteins, hormones, antibodies, cadherins, DNA, DNA fragments, RNA, and RNA fragments immobilized on a solid phase support and capable of binding a ligand at a specific site, under frontal chromatography conditions to provide an effluent from each column; (c) intermittently applying the effluent from each column to a mass spectrometer to provide mass spectra of the constituent putative ligands present in the effluent; (d) evaluating the mass spectra to determine a break through time for the putative ligands in each compound library; and (e) determining an affinity to the target receptor for a putative ligand in a compound library relative to another putative ligand in the same library by comparing the break through time for the putative ligand to the break through time for the other putative ligand.