title: Heat shock proteins in hepatocellular carcinoma: Molecular mechanism and therapeutic potential.
abstract: Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are highly conserved proteins, which are expressed at low levels under normal conditions, but significantly induced in response to cellular stresses. As molecular chaperones, HSPs play crucial roles in protein homeostasis, apoptosis, invasion and cellular signaling transduction. The induction of HSPs is an important part of heat shock response, which could help cancer cells to adapt to stress conditions. Because of the constant stress condition in tumor microenvironment, HSPs overexpression is widely reported in many human cancers. In light of the significance of HSPs for cancer cells to survive and obtain invasive phenotype under stress condition, HSPs are often associated with poor prognosis and treatment resistance in many types of human cancers. It has been described that upregulation of HSPs may serve as diagnostic and prognostic markers in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Targeting HSPs with specific inhibitor alone or in combination with chemotherapy regimens holds promise for the improvement of outcomes for HCC patients. In this review, we summarize the expression profiles, functions and molecular mechanisms of HSPs (HSP27, HSP70 and HSP90) as well as a HSP-like protein (clusterin) in HCC. In addition, we address progression and challenges in targeting these HSPs as novel therapeutic strategies in HCC.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors: Cun
authors: C
authors: Wang
authors: State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors: Yurong
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital and Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion, Ministry of Education, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Kun
authors: K
authors: Guo
authors: State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors: Ning
authors: N
authors: Wang
authors: State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors: Haojie
authors: H
authors: Jin
authors: Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital and Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion, Ministry of Education, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.|Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Yinkun
authors: Y
authors: Liu
authors: State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors: Wenxin
authors: W
authors: Qin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000473:pathology*; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins
keywords: heat shock proteins; hepatocellular carcinoma; metastasis; therapeutic resistance