Targeting Cullin-RING Ubiquitin Ligases and the Applications in PROTACs

Cullin-RING ligases (CRLs), the largest family of E3 ubiquitin ligases, have become an attractive target for drug discovery, primarily due to their ability to regulate the degradation of numerous functionally and structurally diverse proteins, thereby controlling a myriad of biological processes. As the abnormal expressions of CRLs and their substrate proteins are associated with human diseases, elucidating their roles in these physiological and pathological processes will facilitate CRL-targeting drug development for the treatment of these diseases. Notably, these studies are also providing new concepts for the design of potential small-molecule therapeutics targeting CRLs and for the use of CRLs to degrade "undruggable" proteins. In this chapter, we systematically review the development of small molecules that target CRLs and especially emphasize the applications of CRLs in a chemical chimera for protein degradation, termed proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs).