Advances in inhibition of protein-protein interactions targeting hypoxia-inducible factor-1 for cancer therapy

•Critical roles of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 in hypoxia environment.•Two important protein-protein interactions in HIF-1 pathways.•Recent small molecular compounds in inhibition of HIF-1α/HIF-1β dimerization.•Recent small molecular compounds in inhibition of HIF-1α/p300 interaction.•Structure-activity relationships of the reported compounds.