An in-silico approach for novel molecular glue design by rationalizing known molecular glue mediated ternary complex formation

Protein function modulation using small molecule binding is an important therapeutic strategy for many diseases. However, many proteins remain undruggable due to lack of suitable binding pockets for small molecule binding. Proximity induced protein degradation using molecular glues has recently been identified as in important strategy to target the undruggable proteins. Molecular glues were discovered serendipitously and as such currently lack an established approach for in-silico design rationale. In this work, we attempt to establish the rationale for a known case and having inferred the rationale, we discuss how the rationale can be applied in-silico to design novel molecular glue through AI powered techniques. We believe the establishing of in-silico rationale for molecular glue design would be a valuable and welcome addition to the literature to further accelerate the discovery of molecular glues to drug undruggable targets.