ORIGINAL ARTICLE
High-throughput screening for amyloid-β binding natural small-molecules based on the combinational use of biolayer interferometry and UHPLC−DAD-Q/TOF-MS/MS

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2021.08.030Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Abstract

Discovery of drugs rapidly and effectively is an important aspect for Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, a novel high-throughput screening (HTS) method aims at screening the small-molecules with amyloid-β (Aβ) binding affinity from natural medicines, based on the combinational use of biolayer interferometry (BLI) and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode-array detector and quadrupole/time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC−DAD-Q/TOF-MS/MS) has been firstly developed. Briefly, the components in natural medicines disassociated from biotinylated Aβ were collected to analyze their potential Aβ binding affinity by UHPLC−DAD-Q/TOF-MS/MS. Here, baicalein was confirmed to exhibit the highest binding affinity with Aβ in Scutellaria baicalensis. Moreover, polyporenic acid C (PPAC), dehydrotumulosic acid (DTA), and tumulosic acid (TA) in Kai-Xin-San (KXS) were also identified as potent Aβ inhibitors. Further bioactivity validations indicated that these compounds could inhibit Aβ fibrillation, improve the viability in Aβ-induced PC-12 cells, and decrease the Aβ content and improve the behavioral ability in Caenorhabditis elegans. The molecular docking results confirmed that PPAC, DTA, and TA possessed good binding properties with Aβ. Collectively, the present study has provided a novel and effective HTS method for the identification of natural inhibitors on Aβ fibrillation, which may accelerate the process on anti-AD drugs discovery and development.

Graphical abstract

A high-throughput screening (HTS) method based on the combinational use of biolayer interferometry (BLI) and UHPLC‒DAD-Q/TOF-MS/MS is developed. PPAC, DTA, and TA are identified from Kai-Xin-San as potent Aβ inhibitors.

Image 1
  1. Download : Download high-res image (238KB)
  2. Download : Download full-size image

KEY WORDS

Alzheimer's disease
High-throughput screening
Biolayer interferometry
UHPLC−DAD-Q/TOF-MS/MS
Kai-Xin-San

Cited by (0)

Peer review under responsibility of Chinese Pharmaceutical Association and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

These authors made equal contributions to this work.