Recent advances in bioaffinity strategies for preclinical and clinical drug discovery: Screening natural products, small molecules and antibodies

Bio-affinity drug screening strategies have gained popularity in pre-clinical and clinical drug discovery for natural products, small molecules, and antibodies due to their superior selectivity, large number of compounds to be screened, and ability to reduce the time and cost of the drug discovery process. [Display omitted] •Bioaffinity strategies have high efficiency for clinical drug discovery.•Bioaffinity strategies are suitable for screening different drug types.•Continuous and latest bioaffinity drug screening strategies have been reported. Bioaffinity drug screening strategies have gained popularity in preclinical and clinical drug discovery for natural products, small molecules and antibodies owing to their superior selectivity, the large number of compounds to be screened and their ability to minimize the time and expenses of the drug discovery process. This paper provides a systematic summary of the principles of commonly used bioaffinity-based screening methods, elaborates on the success of bioaffinity in clinical drug development and summarizes the active compounds, preclinical drugs and marketed drugs obtained through affinity screening methods. Owing to the high demand for new drugs, bioaffinity-guided screening techniques will play a greater part in clinical drug development.