Focused pseudostatic hydrazone libraries screened by mass spectrometry binding assay: optimizing affinities toward γ-aminobutyric acid transporter 1.

Mass spectrometric (MS) binding assays, a powerful tool to determine affinities of single drug candidates toward chosen targets, were recently demonstrated to be suitable for the screening of compound libraries generated with reactions of dynamic combinatorial chemistry when rendering libraries pseudostatic. Screening of small hydrazone libraries targeting γ-aminobutyric acid transporter 1 (GAT1), the most abundant γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transporter in the central nervous system, revealed two nipecotic acid derived binders with submicromolar affinities. Starting from the biphenyl carrying hit as lead structure, the objective of the present study was to discover novel high affinity GAT1 binders by screening of biphenyl focused pseudostatic hydrazone libraries formed from hydrazine 10 and 36 biphenylcarbaldehydes 11c-al. Hydrazone 12z that carried a 2',4'-dichlorobiphenyl residue was found to be the most potent binder with low nanomolar affinity (pK(i) = 8.094 ± 0.098). When stable carba analogues of representative hydrazones were synthesized and evaluated, the best binder 13z was again displaying the 2',4'-dichlorobiphenyl moiety (pK(i) = 6.930 ± 0.021).