Abstract
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a versatile biophysical technique with wide applicability in drug discovery research, particularly for the detection and characterization of molecular interactions. This review highlights in a comprehensive manner the aspects of biomolecular NMR which are most beneficial for pharmaceutical research and presents them as contributions to the different stages of a drug discovery program: target selection, assay development, lead generation and lead optimization. Emphasis is put on the concept of the particular NMR application, rather than on technical details, and on recent examples. Finally, an appendix of frequently asked questions is given.
Keywords: Fragment-based screening, drug discovery, NMR screening, SAR-by-NMR, structure determination, high throughput screening, hit validation
Footnotes
Received 7 October 2003; received after revision 11 November 2003; accepted 27 November 2003