Frontal affinity chromatography in characterizing immobilized receptors.

The state-of-the-art in frontal affinity chromatography (FAC) applied to receptor of pharmaceutical interest is here reported. This review will first discuss the principles of FAC for ligand characterization (K(d) determination) and for screening studies, and will examine the different strategies that have been followed for the immobilization of a broad range of receptors (cytosolic and membrane receptors). Several reported applications will then be presented demonstrating that FAC is an interesting tool enabling convenient and efficient screening in the identification of new potential ligands. Moreover new applications of FAC including dual binding site assay, receptor subtype characterization, and multi-receptor binding experiments will be underlined.