Thermodynamic basis of the inhibition of protein-protein interactions: design principles for the next generation of medicines

Many biological processes are orchestrated by complex networks of protein-protein interactions and several diseases can be linked to deregulations of these convoluted networks. In spite of their central importance in diseases, very few existing drugs act by disrupting abnormal protein-protein interactions. The discovery of small molecule able to disrupt critical protein-protein interactions has long been considered a very difficult task.