Journal of Dermatitis

Abstract

Heat Shock Proteins: Heating Up Skin Cancer Biology

Prabir Kumar Chakraborty and Soumyajit Banerjee Mustafi

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are molecular chaperones with significant role in various physiological processes and pathological conditions including cancer. Certain cytotoxic insults or heat stress causes activation of the HSPs, which prevent cells from undergoing apoptosis and maintenance of cellular function. However, activation of HSPs also has detrimental effects particularly if the cells evading apoptosis possess oncogenic mutations. Over that last few decades there has been a steady rise in incidence of skin cancer globally and recent scientific and epidemiological evidence hypothesize that heat stress could also be a risk factor of skin carcinogenesis. More recently, HSP based vaccines have shown promise in treatment of early stage melanoma. Therefore, the aim of this article is to summarize the main concepts related to the expression and function of HSPs, from analysis of HSPs role in skin cancer and present final considerations related to HSP targeted therapy in this area.