Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41022846›Full record

ArticleNature communications2025

Frustration in the protein-protein interface plays a central role in the cooperativity of PROTAC ternary complexes.

Ning Ma, Supriyo Bhattacharya, Sanychen Muk, Zuzana Jandova, Philipp S Schmalhorst, Soumadwip Ghosh, Keith Le, Emelyne Diers, Nicole Trainor, William Farnaby and 9 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
14citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

14 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. How to frustrate a plant pathogen.The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology · 2026
    Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. In Silico Analysis of Potential Stabilizer Binding Sites at Protein-RNA Interfaces.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2026
    Article
  13. Review
  14. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

19 authors.

Ning MaDepartment of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA. NMa@coh.org.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4653-7797
Supriyo BhattacharyaDepartment of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0483-2149
Sanychen MukDepartment of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA.
Zuzana JandovaBoehringer Ingelheim RCV GmbH & Co KG, Vienna, Austria.
Philipp S SchmalhorstBoehringer Ingelheim RCV GmbH & Co KG, Vienna, Austria.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5795-0133
Soumadwip GhoshDepartment of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA.
Keith LeDepartment of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA.
Emelyne DiersDepartment of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
Nicole TrainorDepartment of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3758-9969
William FarnabyDepartment of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8610-932X
Michael J RoyDepartment of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0198-9108
Christiane KofinkBoehringer Ingelheim RCV GmbH & Co KG, Vienna, Austria.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2515-8843
Peter GrebBoehringer Ingelheim RCV GmbH & Co KG, Vienna, Austria.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6757-4370
Harald WeinstablBoehringer Ingelheim RCV GmbH & Co KG, Vienna, Austria.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1308-2730
Alessio CiulliDepartment of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8654-1670
Gerd BaderBoehringer Ingelheim RCV GmbH & Co KG, Vienna, Austria.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8410-3415
Kyra SankarBoehringer Ingelheim RCV GmbH & Co KG, Vienna, Austria.
Andreas BergnerBoehringer Ingelheim RCV GmbH & Co KG, Vienna, Austria. andreas.bergner@boehringer-ingelheim.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5843-4325
Nagarajan VaidehiDepartment of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA. nvaidehi@coh.org.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8100-8132

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Targeted protein degradation using proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) offers a promising strategy to eliminate previously undruggable proteins. PROTACs are bifunctional molecules that link a target protein with an E3 ubiquitin ligase, enabling the formation of a ternary complex that promotes ubiquitination and subsequent proteasomal degradation. Although many ternary complex structures are available, understanding how structural features relate to PROTAC function remains challenging due to the dynamic nature of these complexes. Here we show that the interface between the target protein SMARCA2 and the E3 ligase VHL is conformationally flexible and stabilized by interactions involving disordered loops. Using molecular dynamics simulations and X-ray crystallography of SMARCA2-VHL complexes bound to five different PROTACs, we find that interfacial residues often adopt energetically suboptimal, or 'frustrated,' configurations. We further show that the degree of frustration correlates with experimentally measured cooperativity for a set of 11 PROTACs. These findings suggest that quantifying interface frustration provides a rational, structure-based approach to guiding PROTAC design.

Indexed as

ProteolysisTranscription FactorsVon Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor ProteinCrystallography, X-RayHumansMolecular Dynamics SimulationProtein BindingProtein ConformationUbiquitinationUbiquitin-Protein LigasesTranscription FactorsUbiquitin-Protein LigasesVHL protein, humanVon Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor Protein

Identifiers

PMID41022846
PMCPMC12480974

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.