Chemoproteomic approaches to drug target identification and drug profiling

Chemoproteomics represents a new research discipline at the interface of medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, and cell biology focused on studying the molecular mechanisms of action of drugs and other bioactive small molecules. Research strategies frequently combine phenotypic screening with subsequent target identification, and aim at a proteome-wide characterization of drug-induced changes in cellular protein expression and post-translational modifications. In recent years quantitative mass spectrometry has taken center stage in many of these approaches. This review describes experimental strategies in current chemical proteomics research, discusses recent examples of successful applications, and highlights areas in drug discovery where chemical proteomics-based assays using native endogenous proteins are expected to have substantial impact.