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. 2021 Mar 24;12(5):646–665. doi: 10.1039/d1md00022e

Representative examples of different types of chemical probes.

Probe type Example Comments
Label-free chemical probes
graphic file with name d1md00022e-u1.jpg graphic file with name d1md00022e-u2.jpg JQ1 (1) is a potent and selective BET bromodomain inhibitor; (S)-(+)-JQ1 is the active enantiomer and the (R)-(−)-JQ1 is the negative control.128
Labelled chemical probes
Reporter tag, no linkerInline graphic graphic file with name d1md00022e-u4.jpg [3H] Spiperone (2) is a high-affinity radioligand for the dopamine receptors, commonly used in radioligand binding assays and compound screening.132,133
Reactive group and reporter tag, no linkerInline graphic graphic file with name d1md00022e-u6.jpg Photoaffinity probe with radioisotope reporter tag of the 3,5-diaryl-oxadiazole based lead MX-126374 to study selective apoptosis in malignant cells.134
Reporter tag with linkerInline graphic graphic file with name d1md00022e-u8.jpg GB2-Cy3 (4) is a fluorescently-labelled glucose bioprobe for applicationsin high-throughput phenotypic screening to find therapeutic compounds for the treatment of cancer and diabetes.135
Reactive group and reporter tag with linkerInline graphic graphic file with name d1md00022e-u10.jpg PCI-33380 (5) is an activity-based fluorescent probe of the anti-cancer drug ibrutinib. The depicted probe was used to measure occupancy levels in cells and tissue, and permitted the prediction of efficacious dosage of the drug for patients in clinical trials.136
Reactive group and reportertag with click handleInline graphic graphic file with name d1md00022e-u12.jpg The clickable activity-based probe (6) of the anti-cancer drug ibrutinib was used to study in-cell proteome selectivity in human cancer cells. The probe was designed to have minimal effect on the reactivity of the Michael acceptor, which subsequently was optimized to improve the selectivity profile of next generation analogues.137