New substructure filters for removal of pan assay interference compounds (PAINS) from screening libraries and for their exclusion in bioassays.

This report describes a number of substructural features which can help to identify compounds that appear as frequent hitters (promiscuous compounds) in many biochemical high throughput screens. The compounds identified by such substructural features are not recognized by filters commonly used to identify reactive compounds. Even though these substructural features were identified using only one assay detection technology, such compounds have been reported to be active from many different assays. In fact, these compounds are increasingly prevalent in the literature as potential starting points for further exploration, whereas they may not be.