| dc.description.abstract | A challenge in drug discovery is the identification of the drug target, called drug deconvolution. Additionally, off-target effects are considered as one of the reasons many developed drugs fail in the clinical trials. The goal of this work was to develop a solid support, displaying low secondary interactions, for immobilization of drugs (named by author as a CRAM reactor) suitable for incorporation online liquid chromatography mass spectrometry set-ups. The hypothesis was that selective purification on the online reactor would allow identification of low abundant drug targets as a consequence of reduced handling time, contamination and loss of the sample. As a proof-of-concept, an ethylene dimethacrylate-co-vinyl azlactone (EDMA-co-VDM) monolith, prepared in 180 µm inner diameter (ID) or 250 µm ID polyimide-coated fused silica capillaries, would be immobilized with Wnt-signaling pathway inhibitor 161. The 161-immobilized CRAM reactor would then attempt to selectively trap and release a low abundant protein target, tankyrase 2 (TNKS2). The EDMA-co-VDM monolith was successfully prepared in 250 µm ID capillaries. The Wnt-inhibitor 161 was rejected based on MS characterization and LDW639, a structural analogue of Wnt-inhibitor XAV939, was successfully synthesized by the author. To improve availability of LDW639 after immobilization, a linker was attached to LDW639 during synthesis. The linked LDW639 showed 50% inhibition of the Wnt-signaling pathway at a concentration of 11 µM after 24 hours incubation in cells. The EDMA-co-VDM monolith showed secondary interactions towards proteins, but the issues were resolved by quenching the reactive VDM monomer with either monoethanolamine (MEA) or an excess of linked LDW639. Immobilization of the linked LDW639 was found to be successful based on measured UV-Vis absorbance of solutions containing LDW639 was reduced by flushing a monolith, but not by monoliths already flushed with MEA (MEA monolith). The linked LDW639-immobilized CRAM reactors and the MEA monolith were not able to trap and release TNKS1/2 from human embryonic kidney 293 cells after cell lysis with a non-denaturing buffer. Showing that the identification of the drug target from complex matrices remained a challenge, even with tailored materials. | eng |