Small molecules targeting protein–protein interactions for cancer therapy

Protein–protein interactions (PPIs) are fundamental to many biological processes that play an important role in the occurrence and development of a variety of diseases. Targeting the interaction between tumour-related proteins with emerging small molecule drugs has become an attractive approach for treatment of human diseases, especially tumours. Encouragingly, selective PPI-based therapeutic agents have been rapidly advancing over the past decade, providing promising perspectives for novel therapies for patients with cancer. In this review we comprehensively clarify the discovery and development of small molecule modulators of PPIs from multiple aspects, focusing on PPIs in disease, drug design and discovery strategies, structure-activity relationships, inherent dilemmas, and future directions.