Development and implementation of a miniaturized high-throughput time-resolved fluorescence energy transfer assay to identify small molecule inhibitors of polo-like kinase 1

Polo-like kinase (Plk) 1 is a key enzyme involved in regulating the mammalian cell cycle that is also a validated anticancer drug target. Nonetheless, there are relatively few readily available potent and selective small molecule inhibitors of Plk1. To increase the availability of pharmacologically valuable Plk1 inhibitors, we describe herein the development, variability assessment, validation, and implementation of a 384-well automated, miniaturized high-throughput time-resolved fluorescence energy transfer screening assay designed to identify Plk1 kinase inhibitors. Using a small molecule library of pharmaceutically active compounds to gauge high-throughput assay robustness and reproducibility, we found nine general kinase inhibitors, including H-89, which was selected as the minimum control. We then interrogated a 97,101 compound library from the National Institutes of Health repository for small molecule inhibitors of Plk1 kinase activity. The initial primary hit rate in a single 10 mu M concentration format was 0.21%. Hit compounds were subjected to concentration-response confirmation and interference assays. Identified in the screen were seven compounds with 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) values below I mu M, 20 compounds with IC50 values between 1 mu M and 5 mu M, and eight compounds with IC50 values between 5 and 10 mu M, which could be assigned to seven distinct chemotype classes. Hit compounds were also examined for their ability to inhibit other kinases such as protein kinase D, focal adhesion kinase, rho-associated coiled coil protein kinase 2, c-jun NH2-terminal kinase 3, and protein kinase A via experimentation or data-mining. These compounds should be useful as probes for the biological activity of Plk1 and as leads for the development of new selective inhibitors of Plk1.