A statistical-based approach to assessing the fidelity of combinatorial libraries encoded with electrophoric molecular tags. Development and application of tag decode-assisted single bead LC/MS analysis

A statistical sampling protocol is described to assess the fidelity of libraries encoded with molecular tags. The methodology, termed library QA, is based on the combined application of tag decode analysis and single bead LC/MS. The physical existence of library compounds eluted from beads is established by comparing the molecular weight predicted by tag decode with empirical measurement. The goal of sampling is to provide information on overall library fidelity and an indication of the performance of individual library synthons. The minimal sampling size n for library QA is 10× the largest synthon set. Data are reported as proportion (p) ± lower and upper boundary (lb-ub) computed at the 95% confidence level (α = 0.05). As a practical demonstration, library QA was performed on a 25 200-member library of statine amides (size = 40 × 63 × 10). Sampling was conducted three times at n ∼ 630 beads per run for a total of 1902 beads. The overall proportions found for the three runs were consistent with one another: p = 84.4%, lb-ub = 81.5-87.2%; p = 83.1%, lb-ub = 80.2-85.95; and p = 84.5%, lb-ub = 81.8-87.3%, suggesting the true value of p is close to 84% compound confirmation. The performance p_i of individual synthons was also computed. Corroboration of QA data with biological screening results obtained from assaying the library against cathepsin D and plasmepsin II is discussed.