Incorporation of rapid thermodynamic data in fragment-based drug discovery.

Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) has enjoyed increasing popularity in recent years. We introduce SITE (single-injection thermal extinction), a novel thermodynamic methodology that selects high-quality hits early in FBDD. SITE is a fast calorimetric competitive assay suitable for automation that captures the essence of isothermal titration calorimetry but using significantly fewer resources. We describe the principles of SITE and identify a novel family of fragment inhibitors of the enzyme ketosteroid isomerase displaying high values of enthalpic efficiency.