Phage display as a method for discovering cellular targets of small molecules

Phage display can be used for the discovery of cellular targets of small molecules in order to unravel their mechanism of action, which is important in the drug discovery field to assess biological effects of drugs at the molecular level and to investigate pharmacokinetic characteristics of drugs in clinical use. The potential of phage display in the drug discovery field is shown by a lot of successful cellular target identifications of drug-like small molecules in the last decade. More recently, phage display was also introduced in environmental science to predict risks of small molecules, like nickel, 17ß estradiol and bisphenol A on both environmental and human health, wherefore knowledge about the mechanism of action and cellular targets is essential. This paper discusses some important aspects of the phage display approach for the discovery of cellular targets of small molecules. The different phage display libraries and immobilization strategies used for the discovery of cellular target of small molecules are described. In general, the phage display approach is very useful in drug discovery and environmental science as a fast and cost-effective in vitro tool to determine cellular targets of small molecules, which increases our understanding of the mechanisms of action of small molecules.