murine immunoglobulin A J539 (Fab' fragment)

The MCE 1K Drug Fragment Library consists of 1,369 drug fragments. These drug fragments are derived from 2,946 FDA-approved drug molecules, and fragments from one drug can appear in other drugs, so these fragments are somewhat correlated with good PK/PD properties. Fragment-based screening can reserve enough chemical space for subsequent structural optimization. This compound library is an essential tool for drug screening based on FBDD (Fragment-Based Drug Discovery).

Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) is well suited for discovering both drug leads and chemical probes of protein function. 3-dimensionality (3D) diversity is pivotal because the molecular shape is one of the most important factors in molecular recognition by a biomolecule. There is a developing appreciation that 3D fragments could offer opportunities that are not provided by 2D fragments.

MCE 3D Diverse Fragment Library consists of 5,400 non-flat fragment-like molecules (average Fsp3 value 0.58). More than 4,700 fragment compounds contain at least one chiral center in the structure. The key concepts that underlie the library design were 3D shape, structural diversity, reactive functionality and fragment-like. This 3D Diverse Fragment Library brings higher fragment hit optimization and increases the likelihood to find innovative hits in FBDD.

Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) offers a strategic advantage by categorizing fragment hits according to their functional groups. This approach facilitates both the further optimization of these hits and the rational design of larger compounds through fragment combination. The amine functional group plays a vital role in drug development, as evidenced by its presence in many marketed drugs like Galantamine, Tacrine, and Rivastigmine. It is instrumental in enhancing solubility, improving bioavailability, and ensuring shelf-life stability—all critical factors for drug efficacy.

MCE offers a collection of 19,593 amine fragments for drug discovery. All of these compounds adhere to the Rule of Three (RO3) criteria for drug-likeness, which MCE offers a collection of 19,593 amine fragments for drug discovery, all of which stipulates a molecular weight ≤ 300 Da, ≤ 3 hydrogen bond donors, ≤ 3 hydrogen bond acceptors, and a cLogP ≤ 3.

Fragment-based drug development (FBDD) is a strategy for drug discovery that can be applied both academically and commercially to enhance the identification of some non-drug targets. Fragment-based drug development has identified low molecular weight molecules (<300 Da) capable of binding to related macromolecules. These fragments can cover a wide chemical space and are easy to optimize later. Currently, several fragment-based drugs have entered clinical trials, of which two drugs, Vemurafenib and Venetoclax, have been approved for marketing.

Based on Tanimoto coefficient, MCE uses similarity algorithm to carefully select 2,250 high-structurally diverse 'RO3' compliant fragment molecules from large-scale fragment molecules, which can be applied to fragment based drug development.

Covalent inhibitors are small molecules that can bind specifically to target proteins through covalent bonds and inhibit their biological functions. Although for a long time, covalent targeting has been playing a subordinate role in drug discovery, with an increasing number of reports on successful clinical applications of such drugs, the potential of these agents is now being acknowledged.

Covalent ligands rely on reactive groups (“warheads”), and new warheads are key to expanding the scope of covalent modalities. Through careful selection, we constructed a structural filter containing over 110 electrophilic groups. By analyzing the electrophilic fragments selected by the structural filter, we removed any molecules with trivial or undesirable structural features. Ultimately, we obtained 8,900 fragment molecules with covalent modification potential, which can target various reactive amino acid residues and can be used for fragment-based covalent drug discovery.

Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) is well suited for discovering both drug leads and chemical probes of protein function; it can cover broad swaths of chemical space and allows the use of creative chemistry. Fragment-based drug discovery is well-established in industry and has resulted in a variety of drugs entering clinical trials, with two, vemurafenib and venetoclax, already approved. FBDD also has key attractions for academia. Notably, it is able to tackle difficult or novel targets for which no chemical matter may be found in existing HTS collections.

MCE designs a unique collection of 23,342 fragment compounds, all of which obey a heuristic rule called the “Rule of Three (RO3) ”, in which molecular weight ≤300 Da, the number of hydrogen bond donors (H-donors) ≤3, the number of hydrogen bond acceptors (H-acceptors) is ≤3 and cLogP is ≤3. This library is an important source of lead-like drugs.

The most prominent mechanism of action of kinase inhibitors is their competition with ATP by binding to the hinge region of the kinase protein. Once the kinase is blocked by an inhibitor, it loses the ability to transfer phosphate groups from ATP to other molecules, resulting in the loss of kinase activity.

The hinge-binding region of kinase inhibitors mimics the interaction pattern between the ATP nucleobase and the kinase. MCE extracted thousands of kinase inhibitors from the ChEMBL database and isolated their molecular fragments. In certain cases, the amino and amide groups on the molecular fragments are crucial for binding in the hinge region. Therefore, we enhanced the diversity of the collected results by adding these two groups to unoccupied positions on the ring system. Subsequently, the fragments were assessed for their hinge region binding ability via docking at distinct kinases, we also applied pharmacophore constraints to ensure interactions with key amino acids in the kinase hinge region, ultimately obtaining kinase-related molecular fragments.

MCE provides over 12,410 kinase fragment molecules that meet the above requirements and are available off the shelf, serving as an effective tool for screening and developing drugs targeting kinases.

In drug discovery and development (R&D) area, target binding and druggability optimization are core processes. Among these attributes, high solubility is critical for a compound to achieve druggability, as it directly impacts the progress of drug R&D. Superior solubility ensures the rapid dissolution and uniform distribution of drug molecules in vivo, thereby enhancing bioavailability and effectively mitigating issues such as suboptimal efficacy, increased dosage requirements, or exacerbated toxic and side effects arising from insufficient solubility.

From the perspective of medicinal chemistry, high-solubility drug fragments serve as high-quality "molecular building blocks". Based on these fragments, lead compounds with potential druggability can be rapidly screened out, which significantly shortens the drug R&D cycle and reduces R&D costs. Meanwhile, the high-solubility drug fragment library can provide diverse options for drug development in different therapeutic areas, offer solutions for the solubility defects of existing clinical drugs, and facilitate the development of novel, highly effective targeted drugs with higher bioavailability and better safety profiles.

MCE has collected and compiled 2,526 experimentally validated small-molecule fragments with high solubility. These fragments can be directly used for drug molecular design, providing high-quality pre-validated solubility fragments that significantly improve the efficiency of lead compound screening and accelerate the progress of drug R&D.

POI (Protein of Interest) refers to the target protein, namely the disease-causing protein or key functional protein that undergoes degradation or functional modulation in molecular glue-mediated processes. The Molecular Glue POI Library consists of a series of fragments that can specifically bind to different types of POIs. As key components of molecular glues, these ligands form stable interactions with target proteins, laying the foundation for molecular glues to induce the interaction between POIs and E3 ubiquitin ligases. The covered POIs include various types such as cancer-associated GSPT1, androgen receptors, and abnormally aggregated proteins linked to neurodegenerative diseases.

This fragment library can be applied to the screening and optimization of targeted protein degraders. By screening ligands with high affinity and strong selectivity for specific POIs from the library, core structures can be identified to develop novel molecular glues. For instance, optimization of ligands targeting GSPT1 has yielded molecular glue degraders with enhanced degradation activity. Since many POIs are difficult to drug due to the lack of traditional small-molecule binding pockets, some ligands in the POI Ligand Library can modulate such POIs by inducing protein-protein interactions, thereby further expanding the scope of drug discovery for undruggable targets.

MCE has compiled a POI Fragment Library comprising thousands of POI fragments with molecular weights ranging from 150 to 400. This compound library can be widely applied in Molecular Glue research and development.

Different functional groups confer unique chemical properties and reactivity characteristics to compounds. The presence of these functional groups not only affects the physical properties of the compounds, such as solubility and boiling point, but also determines their chemical reactivity and potential applications in chemical synthesis.

Covalent ligands rely on reactive groups (“warheads”), and new warheads are key to expanding the scope of covalent modalities. Through careful selection, we constructed a structural filter containing over 110 electrophilic groups. By analyzing the electrophilic fragments selected by the structural filter, we removed any molecules with trivial or undesirable structural features. Ultimately, we obtained 4,900 multifunctional covalent fragments.

In contrast to the high conservation of conventional orthosteric sites, allosteric sites possess structural characteristics of low conservation, high hydrophobicity, weak polarity, confined spatial geometry, and dynamic cryptic properties. There is a significant difference between their core structures and orthosteric pockets — allosteric pockets are mostly dynamic grooves formed by protein conformational changes, subunit interface clefts, or shallow depressions, rather than the rigid "keyhole" structure of orthosteric sites. With looser spatial constraints, allosteric sites have the advantages of high selectivity and low off-target risk, and have become an important direction in new drug discovery.

Based on the dynamic, hydrophobic, and narrow-long spatial characteristics of allosteric pockets, MCE has performed targeted modification and screening of fragments. The screening criteria strictly conform to the requirements of allosteric binding: molecular weight is controlled at 120–280 Da (to meet the core needs of small molecules in fragment libraries and high derivatization), hydrogen bond donors (HBD ≤ 2), hydrogen bond acceptors (HBA ≤ 3), polar surface area (PSA = 30–80 Ų), rotatable bonds (≤ 2), moderate hydrophobicity (cLogP = 1–3.5), no strongly ionizable groups, and both appropriate rigidity and conformational flexibility to adapt to the dynamic changes of the pocket. Meanwhile, combined with the results of principal moment of inertia (PMI) analysis, fragments with high 3D diversity were obtained. Such fragments have good shape complementarity with allosteric pockets, ensuring that the fragments can smoothly enter the allosteric pockets and form stable binding, while providing room for subsequent optimization and derivation.

This library contains 1,800 structurally diverse fragment molecules with excellent drug-like properties, suitable for allosteric drug development and the design and optimization of allosteric sites. It combines the

In the research of covalent inhibitors targeting serine and threonine, scientists have found that the nucleophilicity of these hydroxyl groups is significantly enhanced due to the influence of their surrounding environment. This results in higher activity during catalytic reactions. Aspirin, which targets the non-catalytic domain serine (Ser529 in human COX1) of cyclooxygenase, exerts its anti-inflammatory effect through covalent binding. β-lactam antibiotics, which targets the catalytic domain serine of penicillin-binding proteins, interferes with bacterial cell wall synthesis.

Through careful selection, we constructed a structural filter containing over 110 electrophilic groups. By analyzing the electrophilic fragments selected by the structural filter, we removed any molecules with trivial or undesirable structural features. Ultimately, we obtained 3,300 fragment molecules which can target serine and threonine residues and can be used for fragment-based covalent drug discovery.

Lysine is the second most common target residue used in the design of TCIs and related covalent ligands. Its appeal lies in its abundance in human proteins, which is approximately three times higher than that of cysteine (5.8% vs. 1.9%). This significantly increases the number of proteins suitable for covalent targeting, especially given that many human proteins lack ligandable cysteine residues. Moreover, it has been suggested that functional lysines have a lower probability of being replaced by mutation, as they often play a crucial role in catalysis by acting as bases or nucleophiles. Additionally, lysines are essential for maintaining the structural integrity of proteins and for regulating post-translational modifications (PTMs). Consequently, targeting lysine has garnered significant interest in recent years.

Through careful selection, we constructed a structural filter containing over 110 electrophilic groups. By analyzing the electrophilic fragments selected by the structural filter, we removed any molecules with trivial or undesirable structural features. Ultimately, we obtained 445 fragment molecules which can target lysine residue and can be used for fragment-based covalent drug discovery.

Covalent inhibitors are small molecules that can bind specifically to target proteins through covalent bonds and inhibit their biological functions. Although for a long time, covalent targeting has been playing a subordinate role in drug discovery, with an increasing number of reports on successful clinical applications of such drugs, the potential of these agents is now being acknowledged. Currently, cysteine is the most common covalent amino acid residue in a variety of covalent drugs, and various warheads have been developed that can react with cysteine, providing the key building blocks for covalent drugs to form covalent bonds.

To meet the development needs of covalent inhibitors targeting cysteine, MCE has designed a unique collection of 3,622 fragments with different covalent warheads that target cysteine. The MCE Cysteine Targeted Covalent Fragment Library is designed using the following covalent warheads: Acrylamides, Propiolic acid ester, Dimethylamine functionalized acrylamides, Chloroacetamides, Acrylonitrile, 2-Cyanoacrylamide, Aziridine, Haloacetamide, etc. All fragments are pre-filtered with the Rule of Three restrictions which can be used for fragment-based covalent drug development.

Recently, significant advancements in tyrosine-targeting electrophiles have primarily occurred in the field of protein-protein interactions (PPIs), where cysteine residues are often underrepresented and novel chemistries are needed to address these interfaces. In this context, tyrosines are frequently more accessible compared to more buried binding sites. Moreover, they are commonly found at "hot spots," which are functional epitopes of PPIs, with 12.3% of the residues consisting of tyrosines. This prevalence is likely due to the hydrophobic nature of tyrosine, its ability to participate in aromatic π-interactions, and its capacity for hydrogen bonding. Beyond PPIs, some progress has also been made in covalent tyrosine targeting in other areas where more commonly addressed side chains are lacking. Even though tyrosine has a slightly lower pKa value compared to the protonated lysine side chain (approximately 10 vs. 10.5 for the unprotected amino acid side chains), significantly less progress has been made in the development of tyrosine-targeted covalent ligands compared to lysine. This is likely due to the reduced flexibility of the tyrosine side chain and the greater steric hindrance of its hydroxy group, which makes it more challenging to adopt suitable reaction geometries.

Through careful selection, we constructed a structural filter containing over 110 electrophilic groups. By analyzing the electrophilic fragments selected by the structural filter, we removed any molecules with trivial or undesirable structural features. Ultimately, we obtained 124 fragment molecules which can target tyrosine residue and can be used for fragment-based covalent drug discovery.

Sulfonyl fluoride (-SO₂F) overcomes the bottleneck of target selectivity in traditional covalent warheads through its unique chemical and biological properties, which rely heavily on cysteine (Cys) residues. Featuring high stability and tunable electrophilicity under physiological conditions, it can target a wide range of nucleophilic residues including lysine (Lys), tyrosine (Tyr), serine (Ser), and histidine (His). It offers the advantages of a broader druggable space, lower off-target risks, and long-lasting efficacy, with numerous reported cases in the research of covalent inhibitors, Molecular glue, PROTACs, and chemical biology probe development.

MCE constructs a highly diverse sulfonyl fluoride fragment library based on the reactivity, stability and physiological compatibility of sulfonyl fluoride. The library contains 1000 efficiently synthesized and stable sulfonyl fluoride fragments, which ensure precise reactivity of the warhead and retain sufficient derivatization space for subsequent optimization. Combined with the modular strategy of SuFEx click chemistry, it enables versatile modification of compounds and functionalization of complex molecules, improves the efficiency of structural optimization and rapidly expands druggability, making it suitable for high-throughput probe and custom covalent library construction. It provides an efficient research tool for the development of broad-spectrum covalent inhibitors targeting Lys/Tyr/Ser/His, covalent PROTACs for E3 ligases and chemical biology probe development, meeting the requirements of modern drug research for high throughput, high success rate and high derivatization potential.

This library contains 1,162 sulfonyl fluoride fragments with high structural diversity, favorable drug-like properties and tunable electrophilicity. It is well suited for precise targeting of non-Cys residues and meets the criteria of simple structure and high derivatization potential. It effectively improves

Unnatural amino acids (UAAs), also referred to as non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) or non-proteinogenic amino acids, are a class of amino acids that are distinct from the 20 standard natural amino acids. They can be obtained through chemical synthesis, biosynthesis, and other approaches, with structural diversity far exceeding that of natural amino acids. UAAs are mainly including naturally occurring non-canonical amino acids, chemically synthesized amino acids, and biosynthetic amino acids, which provide a molecular basis for protein function design.

UAAs exhibit significant value in multiple fields. They can optimize the pharmacokinetic properties of peptide drugs and peptidomimetics, modify enzyme functions and endow them with new biological activities, thereby overcoming the limitations of traditional peptide drugs and expanding the chemical space . Meanwhile, UAAs can serve as molecular probes to analyze protein-protein interactions and investigate the regulatory mechanisms of protein functions.

MCE has compiled a UAAs Fragment Library comprising nearly a thousand unnatural amino acid fragments with extensive coverage of chemical space and enhanced structural diversity. This compound library can be widely applied in peptide synthesis, drug design, and protein engineering.

Boronic acid and boronic ester represent a relatively novel and promising chemical structure in drug design. Boronic acid exists in an sp²-hybridized state, possessing an empty p-orbital that can act as a Lewis acid to accept lone pairs from heteroatoms (O, N, or S). This Lewis acidity enables it to form reversible covalent bonds with amino acid residues such as lysine, serine, threonine, and histidine. Currently, five FDA-approved drugs containing boronic acid or boronic ester predominantly involve such covalent binding mechanisms in their interactions with target proteins. Furthermore, boronic acid can serve as a bioisostere for carboxylic acids, phosphates, and phenolic groups, utilized to improve pharmacokinetic properties and enhance drug efficacy.

To date, five boron-containing drugs have been approved by the FDA. The unique properties of boronic acids and boronic esters confer significant potential in drug design, with applications spanning cancer therapy (e.g., multiple myeloma), anti-infectives (e.g., fungal infections, tuberculosis), anti-inflammatory treatments (e.g., atopic dermatitis), antibacterial agents (e.g., carbapenem-resistant bacterial infections), and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)-responsive prodrugs, among others. The MCE Boronic Acid/Boronic Ester Fragment Library, which contains 1,488 compounds, serves as a valuable tool for the development of boron-containing drugs.

19F-NMR has proved to be a detection mode in fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) for studies of protein structure and interactions. 19F shows high sensitivity for NMR detection, and the exquisite sensitivity of 19F chemical shifts and linewidths to ligand binding all make it a valuable approach in FBDD.F (Fluorine) -Fragments can be used for 19F-NMR detection after binding to target proteins, and can be used as an effective 19F-NMR tool for FBDD.

MCE designs a unique collection of 5,134 F-fragments, all of which obey a heuristic rule called the “Rule of Three (RO3)”, in which molecular weight ≤300 Da, the number of hydrogen bond donors (H-donors) ≤3, the number of hydrogen bond acceptors (H-acceptors) is ≤3 and cLogP is ≤3. This F-fragments library is an important source of lead-like drugs.

CRBN, namely cereblon, is the substrate recognition subunit of the E3 ubiquitin ligase complex in the ubiquitin-proteasome system. A CRBN ligand library refers to a collection of numerous fragments that can specifically bind to the CRBN protein.

These ligands are mostly designed based on validated CRBN-binding warheads and modified through AI-driven molecular generation optimization systems. They not only include classic lenalidomide-derived structures but also cover novel non-lenalidomide scaffolds. After drug-likeness filtering, these ligands exhibit structural diversity and favorable druggable properties. They can be further optimized and modified to facilitate the development of novel molecular glue degraders, accelerate the discovery of molecular glues that induce interactions between CRBN and new substrate proteins, and enable the exploration of novel CRBN substrates for identifying previously unknown CRBN-binding proteins.

MCE compiles 121 fragments that can specifically bind to the CRBN protein, with molecular weights ranging from 200 to 500. Compounds developed based on the library ligands target multiple disease targets such as cancer and autoimmune diseases, further advancing the development of Molecular Glues and PROTACs therapeutic agents.

Macrocycles are promising scaffolds for the design of novel RNA targeting molecules. This collection of macrocycles for RNA consists of very diverse, drug-like molecules which incorporate certain known RNA-recognition elements (e.g. nucleobase ring systems and analogs) distributed within macrocyclic rings or peripheral fragments. As macrocyclic molecules tend to be larger than traditional screening molecules, it is vital to carefully assess and control their physicochemical properties. All macrocycles have been tested for aqueous and DMSO solubility with cutoffs applied at 10 mM in DMSO and 50 µM in PBS (pH 7.4); PAMPA permeability has also been tested for representative set of macrocycles.

Protein protein interactions (PPI) have pivotal roles in life processes. The studies showed that aberrant PPI are associated with various diseases. However, the design of modulators targeting PPI still faces tremendous challenges, such the difficult PPI interfaces for the drug design, lack of ligands reference, lack of guidance rules for the PPI modulators development and high-resolution PPI proteins structures.

The PPI Library comprises molecules of various sizes, frameworks, and shapes ranging from fragment-like entities to macrocyclic derivatives designed as secondary structure mimetics or as epitope mimetics. The designs cover β-turn / loop mimetics and α-helix mimetics. Since helices present at the interface in 62% of all protein-protein interactions. This library focused on designs including mimics with the substitution geometry of an a-helices, as well as designs that mimic the location of “hot-spot” side chains in helix-mediated PPIs.

Orthopoxvirus is a genus of viruses in the family Poxviridae and subfamily Chordopoxvirinae. The orthopoxvirus genus consists of 12 viruses including variola virus, vaccinia virus (VV), cowpox viruses (CV), monkeypox virus, and camelpox virus. Smallpox has been eradicated worldwide in 1980, but some other orthopoxvirus, such as monkeypox virus, are still threats to human health.

There are not many drugs available for orthopoxvirus treatment. The only product currently available for treatment of complications of Orthopoxvirus infection is vaccinia immunoglobulin (VIG). In 2021, brincidofovir was approved by FDA for the treatment of smallpox and tecovirimat was approved by EMA for the treatment of monkeypox in 2022. A few active compounds including interferon and interferon inducers, and a variety of nucleosides or nucleotides have been reported to have activity against orthopoxvirus.

MCE carefully prepared a unique collection of 37 compounds reported with the anti- orthopoxvirus activity which can be used for drug screening and other research about orthopoxvirus.

A diverse compound library with favorable ADMET properties (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion, and Toxicity) is crucial in drug discovery. Early evaluation of ADMET properties allows for the exclusion of molecules with unfavorable profiles at the initial stages, thereby reducing the risk of late-stage development failures, lowering R&D costs, and accelerating optimization of lead compounds. Based on predictions from ADMET-related AI algorithms, the compounds in this library are predicted to exhibit favorable oral bioavailability (F > 30%), reasonable plasma protein binding (PPB < 98%), minimized CYP3A4 inhibition potential (inhibition probability < 50%, CYP3A4 is the most critical drug-metabolizing enzyme in the cytochrome P450 family) , low toxicity profiles, with 140 potentially toxic substructures pre-identified and excluded via substructure searching to eliminate compounds containing hazardous fragments. The diversity library enables broad applicability in high-throughput screening (HTS) and high-content screening (HCS).

Small molecule covalent inhibitors, or irreversible inhibitors, are a type of inhibitors that exert their biological functions by irreversibly binding to target through covalent bonds. Compared with non-covalent inhibitors, covalent inhibitors have obvious advantages in bioactivity, such that covalent warheads can target rare residues of a particular target protein, thus leading to the development of highly selective inhibitors and achieving a more complete and continued target occupancy in living systems. In recent years, the distinct strengths of covalent inhibitors in overcoming drug resistance had been recognized. However, toxicity can be a real challenge related to this class of therapeutics due to their potential for off-target reactivity and has led to these drugs being disfavored as a drug class. The drug design and optimization of covalent inhibitors has become a hot spot in drug discovery.

MCE covalent inhibitor library contains 6,003 small molecules including identified covalent inhibitors and other molecules having common covalent reactive groups as warheads, such as acrylamides, activated terminal acetylenes, sulfonyl fluorides/esters, cloracetamides, alkyl halides, epoxides, aziridines, disulfides, etc.

MCE Covalent inhibitor Library plus, with more powerful screening capability, further complement Covalent inhibitor Library (HY-L036) by adding some fragment compounds with covalent warheads.

Macrocyclic compounds (≥12-atom cyclic small molecules/peptides) have unique physicochemical properties. They form preorganized conformations with high binding affinity/selectivity, target traditional small-molecule-inaccessible proteins, and bridge small-molecule drugs and biological agents. As key protein phosphorylation enzymes, kinases are linked to tumors, COPD, etc., and are critical therapeutic targets. Traditional small-molecule kinase inhibitors lack selectivity, causing off-target toxicity, low bioavailability, and acquired resistance. Macrocycles’ semi-rigid structure restricts conformations, boosts binding selectivity, optimizes pharmacokinetics, and makes macrocyclization a core kinase inhibitor optimization strategy.

Thousands of bioactive macrocycles were curated from ChEMBL. Via Transformer, macrocyclization was converted into a chemical language translation task, enabling end-to-end macrocycle generation from linear precursors with simplified inputs. Macformer achieves efficient, automated linear molecule macrocyclization via deep learning; generated macrocycles have diversity, novelty, biocompatibility, and cover broader chemical space.

MCE collected thousands of marketed/clinical kinase inhibitors, using their fragments for macrocyclization to generate derivatives. After evaluating synthetic accessibility and physicochemical properties, a million-scale virtual macrocyclic library was built for kinase-related virtual and AI-driven screening.

Macrocyclic compounds (≥12-atom cyclic small molecules/peptides) have unique physicochemical properties. They form preorganized conformations with high binding affinity/selectivity, target traditional small-molecule-inaccessible proteins, and bridge small-molecule drugs and biological agents. As key protein phosphorylation enzymes, kinases are linked to tumors, COPD, etc., and are critical therapeutic targets. Traditional small-molecule kinase inhibitors lack selectivity, causing off-target toxicity, low bioavailability, and acquired resistance. Macrocycles’ semi-rigid structure restricts conformations, boosts binding selectivity, optimizes pharmacokinetics, and makes macrocyclization a core kinase inhibitor optimization strategy.

Thousands of bioactive macrocycles were curated from ChEMBL. Via Transformer, macrocyclization was converted into a chemical language translation task, enabling end-to-end macrocycle generation from linear precursors with simplified inputs. Macformer achieves efficient, automated linear molecule macrocyclization via deep learning; generated macrocycles have diversity, novelty, biocompatibility, and cover broader chemical space.

MCE collected thousands of marketed/clinical kinase inhibitors, using their fragments for macrocyclization to generate derivatives. After evaluating synthetic accessibility and physicochemical properties, a million-scale virtual macrocyclic library was built for kinase-related virtual and AI-driven screening.

The discovery of hit molecule is a cornerstone of drug development. Among the diverse tools available, DNA-encoded libraries have emerged a revolutionary platform for high-throughput screening. Compared with traditional HTS, DEL features shorter screening processes, lower costs, simpler assays, and larger library capacities.

DEL Construction utilizes split-and-pool synthesis, a combinatorial chemistry approach that involves iterative splitting, reaction, and pooling. This strategy enables rapid, exponential assembly of fragments in minimal steps without the need for individual compound synthesis andassoicicated isolation or purification steps, thus greatly reducing overall costs. The technology enables simultaneous affinity screeningof massive compound collections to target proteins in a single step. By coupling chemical structures with unique DNA barcodes, each compound is tagged with a distinct DNA sequence for convenient tracking and decoding.DELs readily enable the construction and efficient screening of libraries containing millions to billions of compounds. As a result, DEL screening combines the dual advantages of high efficiency and low cost, making DEL a transformative technology in modern drug discovery.

The DEL kit consists of 50 independent libraries with a total scale of 100 billion compounds. It is constructed through stepwise combinatorial chemistry strategies involving 2-, 3-, and 4-round synthesis. By employing diverse scaffolds and flexible linking strategies, it encompasses various ring systems, linear frameworks, and heterocyclic structures. Screening can be achieved solely through affinity, independent of target-specific activity detection methods. This library is suitable for DEL screening against a wide range of targets.