Heat Shock Proteins: Agents of Cancer Development and Therapeutic Targets in Anti-Cancer Therapy

Overview

Journal Cells

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Biochemistry
Biophysics
Cell Biology
Molecular Biology

Date 2019 Dec 28

PMID 31878360

Citations 120

Authors

Chul Won Yun

Hyung Joo Kim

Ji Ho Lim

Sang Hun Lee

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) constitute a large family of molecular chaperones classified by their molecular weights, and they include HSP27, HSP40, HSP60, HSP70, and HSP90. HSPs function in diverse physiological and protective processes to assist in maintaining cellular homeostasis. In particular, HSPs participate in protein folding and maturation processes under diverse stressors such as heat shock, hypoxia, and degradation. Notably, HSPs also play essential roles across cancers as they are implicated in a variety of cancer-related activities such as cell proliferation, metastasis, and anti-cancer drug resistance. In this review, we comprehensively discuss the functions of HSPs in association with cancer initiation, progression, and metastasis and anti-cancer therapy resistance. Moreover, the potential utilization of HSPs to enhance the effects of chemo-, radio-, and immunotherapy is explored. Taken together, HSPs have multiple clinical usages as biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis as well as the potential therapeutic targets for anti-cancer treatment.

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