The versatile stress protein mortalin as a chaperone therapeutic agent.
Age- and stress-induced modulations in chaperone systems result in "chaperono-deficiency" or "chaperon-opulence". Development of modulators, of chaperone function has therefore, become an emerging field in drug development and discovery. This mini-review summarizes (i) the events leading to identification of an Hsp70 family stress chaperone, mortalin, (ii) experimental evidence to its role in old age diseases and cancer, and (iii) proposes it as a chaperono-therapeutic agent. As post-translational modifications and expression changes in mortalin are being explored as a biomarker for cancer, cardiovascular diseases and neurodegeneration, we discuss here how the current tools used in studying mortalin (e.g. antibodies, peptides, ribozymes, antisense and siRNA, recombinant proteins and small molecules etc.) could be creatively applied in a clinical setting to manage stress and to treat various chaperone-based maladies or "chaperonopathies".
Institute of Health and Sports Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Japan.
Custer C
CC
Deocaris
Sunil C
SC
Kaul
Renu
R
Wadhwa
D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D013812:Therapeutics
D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins; C080352:mortalin