DNA‐encoded combinatorial synthesis provides efficient and dense coverage of chemical space around privileged molecular structures. The indole side chain of tryptophan plays a prominent role in key, or “hot spot”, regions of protein–protein interactions. A DNA‐encoded combinatorial peptoid library was designed based on the Ugi four‐component reaction by employing tryptophan‐mimetic indole side chains to probe the surface of target proteins. Several peptoids were synthesized on a chemically stable hexathymidine adapter oligonucleotide “hexT”, encoded by DNA sequences, and substituted by azide‐alkyne cycloaddition to yield a library of 8112 molecules. Selection experiments for the tumor‐relevant proteins MDM2 and TEAD4 yielded MDM2 binders and a novel class of TEAD‐YAP interaction inhibitors that perturbed the expression of a gene under the control of these Hippo pathway effectors.

BAG3, a multifunctional HSP70 co-chaperone and anti-apoptotic protein that interacts with the ATPase domain of HSP70 through its C-terminal BAG domain plays a key physiological role in cellular proteostasis. The HSP70/BAG3 complex determines the levels of a large number of selective client proteins by regulating their turnover via the two major protein degradation pathways, i.e. proteasomal degradation and macroautophagy. On the one hand, BAG3 competes with BAG1 for binding to HSP70, thereby preventing the proteasomal degradation of its client proteins. By functionally interacting with HSP70 and LC3, BAG3 also delivers polyubiquitinated proteins to the autophagy pathway. BAG3 exerts a number of key physiological functions, including an involvement in cellular stress responses, proteostasis, cell death regulation, development, and cytoskeletal dynamics. Conversely, aberrant BAG3 function/expression has pathophysiological relevance correlated to cardiomyopathies, neurodegeneration, and cancer. Evidence obtained in recent years underscores the fact that BAG3 drives several key hallmarks of cancer, including cell adhesion, metastasis, angiogenesis, enhanced autophagic activity, and apoptosis inhibition. This review provides a state-of-the-art overview on the role of BAG3 in stress and therapy resistance of cancer, with a particular focus on BAG3-dependent modulation of apoptotic signaling and autophagic/lysosomal activity.