Heat shock protein 90 is a rational molecular target in breast cancer.
Heat shock protein 90 is a molecular chaperone whose association is required for stability and function of multiple mutated, chimeric, and over-expressed signaling proteins that promote cancer cell growth and/or survival. Hsp90 client proteins important in breast cancer include the estrogen receptor, the serine-threonine kinases Raf-1 and Akt, the receptor tyrosine kinase ErbB2/Neu, and the hypoxia inducible transcription factor HIF-1alpha. Hsp90 small molecule inhibitors, by interacting specifically with a single molecular target, thus promote the destabilization and eventual degradation of multiple cancer cell survival and growth promoting proteins, and these inhibitors have shown promising anti-tumor activity in preclinical breast cancer model systems. One Hsp90 inhibitor, 17-AAG, is currently in Phase I clinical trial. Because of their unique ability to inhibit multiple survival pathways utilized by cancer cells, combination of Hsp90 inhibitors with standard chemotherapeutic agents may dramatically increase in vivo efficacy.
Neckers
Len
L
Cell and Cancer Biology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, 9610 Medical Center Drive, Suite 300, Rockville, MD 20850, USA. len@helix.nih.gov