How to Triage PAINS-Full Research

Nonspecific bioactivity and assay artifacts have gained increasing attention in recent years. This focus has arisen primarily from the publication of a set of chemical substructures, termed pan assay interference compounds (PAINS), which are associated with promiscuous bioactivity and assay interference in real and virtual high-throughput screening (HTS) campaigns. Despite an increasing awareness in the HTS and medicinal chemistry communities about the liabilities of these compounds, articles featuring PAINS and PAINS-like compounds are still being published. In this perspective, we describe some of the factors we believe are driving this resource-sapping trend. We also provide what we hope are helpful insights that may lead to the earlier recognition of these generally nontranslatable compounds, thus preventing the propagation of PAINS-full costly research.