Heat Shock Proteins or HSP’s are a group of protector proteins that have a large effect on the phynotypic expression of genes. It has been known for a while that a particular group of HSp’s (HSP70) have a marked effect on the growth and development of tumours.
There has been recent research studying the effect of other HSP’s in the HSp70 group on the morphology of cancerous cells and growths. In Genes and DEV. 2005, By implementing RNA interference and targeted knockdown of individual HSP’s from the HSP70 family, it was revealed that for cancer cell growth and development both HSP70 and HSP70-2 were essential. When cancer cells were deprived of either HSP70 or HSP70-2 there was a radical change in morphology, the depletion of HSP70-2 also induced the expression of cytokenine-1 which is a target of a tumour suppressing protein.
HSP70 inhibits cell death induced by a number of varying stimuli, it is this property promotes tumourogenisis. In fact HSP70 occurs in high abundance in a variety of malignant tumours. By using antsense, oligonucleatides or adenoviral transfer of antisense to deplete HSP70 cancer cells can be selectively killed not only in cell cultures but also in tumour xenografts in mice. With more research perhaps transposable to human cancer cases.
primary resorce
