Protein–protein interaction

Protein–protein interactions (PPIs) refer to lasting and specific physical contacts established between two or more proteins as a result of biochemical events and/or electrostatic forces. Commonly they are understood as physical contacts with molecular docking between proteins that occur in a cell or in a living organism in specific biomolecular contexts (De Las Rivas J and Fontanillo C, 2010).

Proteins rarely act alone. Many molecular processes within a cell are carried out by molecular machines that are built from a large number of protein components organized by their PPIs. These interactions are important for the interactomics system of the living cell and aberrant PPIs are the bases of multiple diseases, such as Creutzfeld-Jacob, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer.

PPIs have been studied from different perspectives: biochemistry, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, signal transduction, among others. All this information enables the creation of large protein interaction networks – similar to metabolic or genetic/epigenetic networks – that empower the current knowledge on biochemical cascades and disease pathogenesis, as well as provide putative new therapeutic targets.

List of protein interactions

Proteins can interact with many types of molecules. Such interactions are related to their function and are therefore an object of study in molecular biology, and of computational methods of prediction in bioinformatics.

Protein interactions can be classified as:

See also

References