Jan Schejbal

Immobilized-enzyme reactors integrated with capillary electrophoresis for pharmaceutical research

Enzymes play an essential role in many aspects of pharmaceutical research as drug targets, drug metabolizers, enzyme drugs and more. In this specific field, enzyme assays are required to meet a number of specific requirements, such as low cost, easy automation, and high reliability. The integration of an immobilized-enzyme reactor to capillary electrophoresis represents a unique approach to fulfilling these criteria by combining the benefits of enzyme immobilization, that is, increased stability and repeated use, as well as the minute sample consumption, short analysis time, and efficient analysis provided by capillary electrophoresis. In this review, we summarize, analyze, and discuss published works where pharmaceutically relevant enzymes were used to prepare capillary electrophoresis-integrated immobilized-enzyme reactors in an online manner. The presented assays are divided into three distinct groups based on the drug-enzyme relationship. The first, more extensively studied group employs enzymes that are considered to be therapeutic targets, the second group of assays present tools to assess drug metabolism and the third group assesses enzyme drugs. Furthermore, we examine various methods of enzyme immobilization and their implications for assay properties.

An improved design to capture magnetic microparticles for capillary electrophoresis based immobilized microenzyme reactors

In this paper, we demonstrate the effectiveness of a new 3D printed magnet holder that enables capture of magnetic microparticles in commercially available capillary electrophoresis equipment with a liquid or air based coolant system. The design as well as the method to capture magnetic microparticles inside the capillary are discussed. This setup was tested at temperature and pH values suitable for performing enzymatic reactions. To demonstrate its applicability in CE‐ immobilized microenzyme reactors (IMER) development, human flavin‐containing monooxygenase 3 and bovine serum albumin were immobilized on amino functionalized magnetic microparticles using glutaraldehyde. These microparticles were subsequently used to perform in‐line capillary electrophoresis with clozapine as a model substrate. This setup could be used further to establish CE‐IMERs of other drug metabolic enzymes in a commercially available liquid based capillary coolant system. The CE‐IMER setup was successful, although a subsequent decrease in enzyme activity was observed on repeated runs.

Development and comprehensive comparison of two on-line capillary electrophoretic methods for β-secretase inhibitor screening☆

Alzheimers disease is the most common cause of dementia, afflicting over 34 million patients worldwide. Since β-secretase is a rate-limiting enzyme of the production of neurotoxic β-amyloid peptide oligomers abnormally accumulated in the affected brain tissue, its specific inhibition appears to be a promising approach to slowing down or even stopping the progression of the disease. Hence two on-line capillary electrophoretic methods for studies of β-secretase activity based on the principles of transverse diffusion of laminar flow profiles and electrophoretically mediated microanalysis were developed, both using a simple unlabeled peptide substrate and UV detection. The optimized procedures were thoroughly validated and applied for determining the enzymes kinetic parameters and the inhibition characteristics of two potent probe inhibitors. The resulting values were found to be comparable to literature data obtained with other analytical techniques. The suitability of the employed methodologies for different experimental designs is discussed on the basis of a statistical evaluation of the experimental data. The presented methods constitute a miniaturized and fully automated tool, which should be suitable for kinetic and inhibition studies of β-secretase as a target for Alzheimers disease drug discovery in the early stages of the development of a new drug.

A label-free MALDI TOF MS-based method for studying the kinetics and inhibitor screening of the Alzheimer’s disease drug target β-secretase

AbstractMatrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI TOF MS) is a well-established method with a unique set of qualities including sensitivity, minute sample consumption, and label-free detection, all of which are highly desired in enzyme assays. On the other hand, the application of MALDI TOF MS is usually limited by high concentrations of MS-incompatible compounds in the reaction mixture such as salts or organic solvents. Here, we introduce kinetic and inhibition studies of β-secretase (BACE1), a key enzyme of the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Compatibility of the enzyme assay with MALDI TOF MS was achieved, providing both a complex protocol including a desalting step designed for rigorous kinetic studies and a simple mix-and-measure protocol designed for high-throughput inhibitor screening. In comparison with fluorescent or colorimetric assays, MALDI TOF MS represents a sensitive, fast, and label-free technique with minimal sample preparation. In contrast to other MS-based methodological approaches typically used in drug discovery processes, such as a direct injection MS or MS-coupled liquid chromatography or capillary electrophoresis, MALDI TOF MS enables direct analysis and is a highly suitable approach for high-throughput screening. The method’s applicability is strongly supported by the high correlation of the acquired kinetic and inhibition parameters with data from the literature as well as from our previous research. Graphical abstractᅟ