Patent ID: 7132252

Claim:
A method of screening a candidate compound for its interaction with a CYP450 enzyme, comprising: contacting a candidate compound with at least one CYP450 enzyme and an optical molecular sensor having the structure: Y-L-Q, wherein: Y is selected from the group consisting of Q, wherein Q is a compound that generates an optical signal in its free hydroxy or hydroxylate form that is different from the optical signal that it generates in its ether form; saturated C 1 –C 20 alkyl, unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkenyl, unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkynyl, substituted saturated C 1 –C 20 alkyl, substituted unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkenyl, substituted unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkynyl, C 1 –C 20 cycloalkyl, C 1 –C 20 cycloalkenyl, substituted saturated C 1 –C 20 cycloalkyl, substituted unsaturated C 1 –C 20 cycloalkenyl, aryl, substituted aryl, heteroaryl and substituted heteroaryl; wherein if Y is Q, L is L′, wherein L′ is (CR 4 H)(—OCR 2 H) p , wherein each R 2 and each R 4 is separately selected from the group consisting of a hydrogen atom, saturated C 1 –C 20 alkyl, unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkenyl, unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkynyl, substituted saturated C 1 –C 20 alkyl, substituted unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkenyl, substituted unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkynyl, C 1 –C 20 cycloalkyl, C 1 –C 20 cycloalkenyl, substituted saturated C 1 –C 20 cycloalkyl, substituted unsaturated C 1 –C 20 cycloalkenyl, aryl, substituted aryl, heteroaryl and substituted heteroaryl and p is a positive integer no greater than twelve; L has the chemical structure L′ or (—OCR 2 H) p —, wherein each R 2 is separately selected from the group consisting of a hydrogen atom, saturated C 1 –C 20 alkyl, unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkenyl, unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkynyl, substituted saturated C 1 –C 20 alkyl, substituted unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkenyl, substituted unsaturated C 1 –C 20 alkynyl, C 1 –C 20 cycloalkyl, C 1 –C 20 cycloalkenyl, substituted saturated C 1 –C 20 cycloalkyl, substituted unsaturated C 1 –C 20 cycloalkenyl, aryl, substituted aryl, heteroaryl, substituted heteroaryl, and p is a positive integer no greater than twelve; and detecting an optical signal, if any, resulting from interaction of the optical molecular sensor with the CYP450 enzyme, wherein if the optical molecular sensor produces an optical signal that is different from what it produces in the presence of the CYP450 enzyme alone, the candidate compound interacts with the CYP450 enzyme.