Immobilized Enzyme Reactors: an Overview of Applications in Drug Discovery from 2008 to 2018

Abstract: The necessity to develop automated methods for the fast screening of new libraries of compounds and the identification of active entities from natural mixtures has led to an increasing interest in the development of immobilized enzyme reactors (IMERs). This strategy overcomes some drawbacks of the in-solution methods and is, therefore, very attractive in the drug discovery field. This review gives an overview of IMER applications in the last decade. The reported examples concern conventional columns as well as capillary reactors integrated in liquid chromatography or capillary electrophoresis systems, coupled to spectroscopic or mass spectrometry detectors. The experimental setups and main features as well as characterization of new active entities are discussed. As a result of the growing importance of compounds from natural sources in drug discovery, particular attention is given to IMERs developed to be used for the identification of bioactive compounds. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].