Finding a unifying motif of intermolecular cooperativity in protein associations

At the molecular level, most biological processes entail protein associations which in turn rely on a small fraction of interfacial residues called hot spots. Here we show that hot spots share a unifying molecular attribute: they provide a third-body contribution to intermolecular cooperativity. Such motif, based on the wrapping of interfacial electrostatic interactions, is essential to maintain the integrity of the interface and can be exploited in rational drug design since such regions may serve as blueprints to engineer small molecules disruptive of protein-protein interfaces.