Measurement of dissociation constants of inhibitors binding to Src SH2 domain protein by non‐covalent electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

A mass spectrometric protocol for identifying ligands with a wide range of affinities (3–101 µ M ) and quantitative spectral analysis for non‐covalent interactions have been developed using Src SH2 as a target. Dissociation constants of five compounds, three with a phospho moiety, one with a sulphonic acid group and one with carboxylic acid groups only, were determined using one‐ligand one‐binding‐site, two‐ligands one‐binding site and one‐ligand two‐binding‐sites models. The K d values determined by ESI‐MS of the three compounds containing the phospho moiety (3.2–7.9 µ M ) were comparable to those obtained from a solution equilibrium fluorescence polarization assay. The compound with a sulphonate group is a much weaker binding ligand ( K d  = 101 µ M by ESI, ≫300 µ M by FP) towards the Src SH2 protein. Two complexes with different stoichiometric ratios 1:1 and 2:1 (ligand–protein) were observed by ESI‐MS for the ligand GIXXX630X. Analysis of binding isotherms indicated the presence of two binding sites for the ligand with K d values of 9.3 and 193 µ M . These data confirmed that, for these polar compounds, non‐covalent ESI‐MS can measure affinity which very closely reflects the affinity measured under true solution equilibrium conditions. ESI‐MS has several key advantages over many solution methods: it can identify the existence of and measure the affinity of complexes other than simple 1:1 ligand–enzyme complexes. Moreover, ESI‐MS competition experiments can be readily performed to yield data on whether two ligands bind simultaneously or competitively at the same time as measuring the affinity of the ligand. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.