Further comparison of primary hit identification by different assay technologies and effects of assay measurement variability

J Biomol Screen. 2005 Sep;10(6):581-9. doi: 10.1177/1087057105275628. Epub 2005 Aug 15.

Abstract

High-throughput screening (HTS) has grown rapidly in the past decade, with many advances in new assay formats, detection technologies, and laboratory automation. Recently, several studies have shown that the choice of assay technology used for the screening process is particularly important and can yield quite different primary screening outcomes. However, because the screening assays in these previous studies were performed in a single-point determination, it is not clear to what extent the difference observed in the screening results between different assay technologies is attributable to inherent assay variability and day-to-day measurement variation. To address this question, a nuclear receptor coactivator recruitment assay was carried out in 2 different assay formats, namely, AlphaScreen and time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer, which probed the same biochemical binding events but with different detection technologies. For each assay format, 4 independent screening runs in a typical HTS setting were completed to evaluate the run-to-run screening variability. These multiple tests with 2 assay formats allow an unambiguous comparison between the discrepancies of different assay formats and the effects of the variability of assay and screening measurements on the screening outcomes. The results provide further support that the choice of assay format or technology is a critical factor in HTS assay development.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Automation
  • Biotin / chemistry
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / methods*
  • Drug Industry / instrumentation
  • Drug Industry / methods
  • Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer
  • Ligands
  • Miniaturization
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Rats
  • Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Research Design
  • Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
  • Transcription Factors / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Transcription Factors / metabolism

Substances

  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • Ligands
  • Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear
  • Transcription Factors
  • farnesoid X-activated receptor
  • Biotin