Inhibitors of Protein-Protein Interactions as Potential Drugs

Protein-protein interactions play a crucial role in numerous vital cell functions. However proteinprotein interactions are also responsible for pathological formation of protein aggregates, which determine the development of several diseases. The key role of protein-protein interactions for manifestation of numerous cell functions attracts much attention to protein complexes as perspective drug targets. So design or discovery of small molecules that would regulate protein-protein interactions represents great pharmacological interest. The recent progress in understanding of mechanism protein-protein interaction, including role of flexibility of protein-protein interfaces, thermodynamic of complex formation, discovery of small molecules modifying protein-protein interactions, the advantages and limitation of protein-protein inhibitors as potential drugs are discussed in this review. Keywords: Protein-protein interaction, inhibitors, target, dimerization, drug, flexibility, allosteric inhibition