Fluorous-based small-molecule microarrays for protein, antibody and enzyme screening

Microarray techniques based on covalent and noncovalent compound immobilization have been developed for screening proteins, antibodies and enzymes to probe the possible biological roles of these interactions as well as their therapeutic and diagnostic potential. Small-molecule microarrays are particularly valuable for creating and probing multivalent displays of molecules, such as saccharides that mimic the multivalent displays of cell surface-bound compounds. After development of the method for the screening of carbohydrates in a multivalent display format, microarrays based on noncovalent fluorous interactions have seen use in probing protein-binding partners with a range of arrayed compounds. In this article, existing strategies and future perspectives for fluorous-based small-molecule microarrays for protein, antibody and enzyme screening will be presented. To date, qualitative and quantitative fluorous-based microarrays have offered important information regarding biomolecular interactions. Larger compound arrays created with automated fluorous-based synthesis and diagnostic tools based on fluorous-based microarrays are likely ahead.