Open AccessHeat shock proteins and cardiovascular disease
Author(s) -
Bernardo RodríguezIturbe,
Roy A. Johnson
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
physiology international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 2677-0164
pISSN - 2498-602X
DOI - 10.1556/2060.105.2018.1.4
Subject(s) - heat shock protein , biology , molecular mimicry , immune system , chaperone (clinical) , intracellular , microbiology and biotechnology , hsp70 , hsp60 , heat shock , immunology , gene , genetics , medicine , pathology
The development of stress drives a host of biological responses that include the overproduction of a family of proteins named heat shock proteins (HSPs), because they were initially studied after heat exposure. HSPs are evolutionarily preserved proteins with a high degree of interspecies homology. HSPs are intracellular proteins that also have extracellular expression. The primary role of HSPs is to protect cell function by preventing irreversible protein damage and facilitating molecular traffic through intracellular pathways. However, in addition to their chaperone role, HSPs are immunodominant molecules that stimulate natural as well as disease-related immune reactivity. The latter may be a consequence of molecular mimicry, generating cross-reactivity between human HSPs and the HSPs of infectious agents. Autoimmune reactivity driven by HSPs could also be the result of enhancement of the immune response to peptides generated during cellular injury and of their role in the delivery of peptides to the major histocompatibility complex in antigen-presenting cells. In humans, HSPs have been found to participate in the pathogenesis of a large number of diseases. This review is focused on the role of HSPs in atherosclerosis and essential hypertension.