Molecular glues modulate protein functions by inducing protein aggregation: A promising therapeutic strategy of small molecules for disease treatment

Autor: Hongyu Wu, Hong Yao, Chen He, Yilin Jia, Zheying Zhu, Shengtao Xu, Dahong Li, Jinyi Xu
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, Vol 12, Iss 9, Pp 3548-3566 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2211-3835
DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2022.03.019
Popis: Molecular glues can specifically induce aggregation between two or more proteins to modulate biological functions. In recent years, molecular glues have been widely used as protein degraders. In addition, however, molecular glues play a variety of vital roles, such as complex stabilization, interactome modulation and transporter inhibition, enabling challenging therapeutic targets to be druggable and offering an exciting novel approach for drug discovery. Since most molecular glues are identified serendipitously, exploration of their systematic discovery and rational design are important. In this review, representative examples of molecular glues with various physiological functions are divided into those mediating homo-dimerization, homo-polymerization and hetero-dimerization according to their aggregation modes, and we attempt to elucidate their mechanisms of action. In particular, we aim to highlight some biochemical techniques typically exploited within these representative studies and classify them in terms of three stages of molecular glue development: starting point, optimization and identification.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals