Molecular glues: The adhesive connecting targeted protein degradation to the clinic

Abstract

Targeted protein degradation is a rapidly exploding drug discovery strategy which uses small molecules to recruit disease-causing proteins for rapid destruction mainly via the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. It shows great potential for treating diseases such as cancer, infectious, inflammatory, and neurodegenerative diseases, especially for those with “undruggable” pathogenic protein targets. With the recent rise of the ‘molecular glue’ type of protein degraders, which tighten and simplify the connection of an E3 ligase with a disease-causing protein for ubiquitination and subsequent degradation, new therapies for unmet medical needs are being designed and developed. Here we use data from the CAS Content Collection and the publication landscape of recent research on targeted protein degraders to provide insights into these molecules, with a special focus on molecular glues. We also outline the advantages of the molecular glues and summarize the advances in drug discovery practices for molecular glue degraders. We further provide a thorough review of drug candidates in targeted protein degradation through E3 ligase recruitment. Finally, we highlight the progression of molecular glues in drug discovery pipelines and their targeted diseases. Overall, our paper provides a comprehensive reference to support the future development of molecular glues in medicine.