The cellular thermal shift assay : a novel strategy to study drug target engagement and resistance development in cancer therapy

The drug binding to its target molecule determines the efficacy of therapeutics. Therefore, it is important to study drug target engagement in cells. This is often difficult because drug binding cannot be directly measured inside cells. We have developed a technique called cellular thermal shift ass...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Usha Sreekumar Lekshmy Kunjamma
Other Authors: Par Nordlund
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73363
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author Usha Sreekumar Lekshmy Kunjamma
author2 Par Nordlund
author_facet Par Nordlund
Usha Sreekumar Lekshmy Kunjamma
author_sort Usha Sreekumar Lekshmy Kunjamma
collection NTU
description The drug binding to its target molecule determines the efficacy of therapeutics. Therefore, it is important to study drug target engagement in cells. This is often difficult because drug binding cannot be directly measured inside cells. We have developed a technique called cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) for studying drug binding to target proteins in cells and tissues. This assay is based on the biophysical principle of ligand-induced thermal stabilization of target proteins. In this thesis, I have used CETSA for various applications. The assay was employed to study drug binding in cancer cell lines for a set of important clinical targets and to monitor processes of drug transport and activation in cells. We showed that CETSA has the potential to monitor drug resistance development during cancer therapy using antifolate and fluoropyrimide drug resistant cell lines. CETSA enables to understand the effects of drug usage and find out the most effective drug in targeting proteins in cancer patients. Thermal precipitation assay (TPA) was developed in parallel to CETSA that uses the same principle to perform high throughput fragment screening at very low protein concentration. TPA was used for fragment screening of different clinically relevant targets. The CETSA method combined with quantitative mass spectrometry detection permits the monitoring of a wide range of drug targets and the downstream effectors. We have used this strategy to study the interactions of metabolites with the human proteome. The method was validated with known nucleotide-protein interactions and most importantly, novel interactions were discovered. These studies show that CETSA is likely to become a valuable tool for drug research and development.
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spelling ntu-10356/733632023-02-28T18:42:41Z The cellular thermal shift assay : a novel strategy to study drug target engagement and resistance development in cancer therapy Usha Sreekumar Lekshmy Kunjamma Par Nordlund School of Biological Sciences DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Drug Resistance The drug binding to its target molecule determines the efficacy of therapeutics. Therefore, it is important to study drug target engagement in cells. This is often difficult because drug binding cannot be directly measured inside cells. We have developed a technique called cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) for studying drug binding to target proteins in cells and tissues. This assay is based on the biophysical principle of ligand-induced thermal stabilization of target proteins. In this thesis, I have used CETSA for various applications. The assay was employed to study drug binding in cancer cell lines for a set of important clinical targets and to monitor processes of drug transport and activation in cells. We showed that CETSA has the potential to monitor drug resistance development during cancer therapy using antifolate and fluoropyrimide drug resistant cell lines. CETSA enables to understand the effects of drug usage and find out the most effective drug in targeting proteins in cancer patients. Thermal precipitation assay (TPA) was developed in parallel to CETSA that uses the same principle to perform high throughput fragment screening at very low protein concentration. TPA was used for fragment screening of different clinically relevant targets. The CETSA method combined with quantitative mass spectrometry detection permits the monitoring of a wide range of drug targets and the downstream effectors. We have used this strategy to study the interactions of metabolites with the human proteome. The method was validated with known nucleotide-protein interactions and most importantly, novel interactions were discovered. These studies show that CETSA is likely to become a valuable tool for drug research and development. ​Doctor of Philosophy (SBS) 2018-03-01T07:45:24Z 2018-03-01T07:45:24Z 2018 Thesis Usha Sreekumar Lekshmy Kunjamma. (2018). The cellular thermal shift assay : a novel strategy to study drug target engagement and resistance development in cancer therapy. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73363 10.32657/10356/73363 en 152 p. application/pdf
spellingShingle DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Drug Resistance
Usha Sreekumar Lekshmy Kunjamma
The cellular thermal shift assay : a novel strategy to study drug target engagement and resistance development in cancer therapy
title The cellular thermal shift assay : a novel strategy to study drug target engagement and resistance development in cancer therapy
title_full The cellular thermal shift assay : a novel strategy to study drug target engagement and resistance development in cancer therapy
title_fullStr The cellular thermal shift assay : a novel strategy to study drug target engagement and resistance development in cancer therapy
title_full_unstemmed The cellular thermal shift assay : a novel strategy to study drug target engagement and resistance development in cancer therapy
title_short The cellular thermal shift assay : a novel strategy to study drug target engagement and resistance development in cancer therapy
title_sort cellular thermal shift assay a novel strategy to study drug target engagement and resistance development in cancer therapy
topic DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Drug Resistance
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73363
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