Identification and Investigation of Novel Binding Fragments in the Fatty Acid Binding Protein 6 (FABP6)

Fatty acid binding
protein 6 (FABP6) is a potential drug discovery
target, which, if inhibited, may have a therapeutic benefit for the
treatment of diabetes. Currently, there are no published inhibitors
of FABP6, and with the target believed to be amenable to fragment-based
drug discovery, a structurally enabled program was initiated. This
program successfully identified fragment hits using the surface plasmon
resonance (SPR) platform. Several hits were validated with SAR and
were found to be displaced by the natural ligand taurocholate. We
report the first crystal structure of human FABP6 in the unbound form,
in complex with cholate, and with one of the key fragments.