Heat Shock Protein

The family of heat shock proteins (HSPs) was initially characterized as a highly conserved battery of genes whose expression could be induced by heat shock. HSPs play a prominent role in many of the cell’s most basic processes. Many heat shock protein family members are now known to function constitutively as molecular chaperones, stabilizing and assisting in the trafficking of nascent peptides during normal growth. Under stressful conditions such as heat shock or hypoxia, increased expression of heat shock proteins protects the cell by stabilizing unfolded or misfolded peptides, giving the cell time to repair or re-synthesize damaged proteins. Their general role as molecular chaperones, protectors of the proteome, is now central to many areas of active research including aging, neurodegeneration, signaling, immunology and cancer.