Development and Implementation of a High Throughput Screen for the Human Sperm-Specific Isoform of Glyceraldehyde 3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (GAPDHS)
Jonathan Z Sexton#1, 2, Polina V Danshina#3, David R Lamson#1, Mark Hughes1, Alan J House1, Li-An Yeh1, 2, Deborah A O’Brien*, 3, Kevin P Williams*, 1, 2
1 Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27707, USA
2 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27707, USA, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
3 Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Laboratories for Reproductive Biology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Abstract
Glycolytic isozymes that are restricted to the male germline are potential targets for the development of reversible, non-hormonal male contraceptives. GAPDHS, the sperm-specific isoform of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, is an essential enzyme for glycolysis making it an attractive target for rational drug design. Toward this goal, we have optimized and validated a high-throughput spectrophotometric assay for GAPDHS in 384-well format. The assay was stable over time and tolerant to DMSO. Whole plate validation experiments yielded Z’ values >0.8 indicating a robust assay for HTS. Two compounds were identified and confirmed from a test screen of the Prestwick collection. This assay was used to screen a diverse chemical library and identified fourteen small molecules that modulated the activity of recombinant purified GAPDHS with confirmed IC50 values ranging from 1.8 to 42 µM. These compounds may provide useful scaffolds as molecular tools to probe the role of GAPDHS in sperm motility and long term to develop potent and selective GAPDHS inhibitors leading to novel contraceptive agents.
Keywords: Glycolysis, GAPDHS, high throughput screening, sperm, contraceptive.
Article Information
Article History:
Received Date: 11/2/2011
Revision Received Date: 7/5/2011
Acceptance Date: 23/5/2011
Electronic publication date: 4/7/2011
Collection year: 2011
© Sexton et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
* Address correspondence to these authors at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise, Room 1021, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina 27707, USA; Tel: 919-530-7726; Fax: 919-530-6600; E-mail: kpwilliams@nccu.eduCorrespondence: Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, CB#7090, 214A Taylor Hall, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 USA; Tel: 919-962-8105; Fax: 919-966-1856; E-mail: dao@med.unc.edu# Joint first authors.
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Manuscript submitted on 11-2-2011 |
Original Manuscript |
Development and Implementation of a High Throughput Screen for the Human Sperm-Specific Isoform of Glyceraldehyde 3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (GAPDHS) |