Title:The Impact of Small Heat Shock Proteins (HspBs) in Alzheimer’s and Other Neurological Diseases
Volume: 22
Issue: 26
Author(s): Nikola Golenhofen and Britta Bartelt-Kirbach
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Heat shock proteins, Alzheimer`s disease, neurodegeneration, neuroprotection, neuronal stress response, HspB, α-crystallin,
protein aggregation.
Abstract: Background: Heat shock proteins are powerful endogenous cytoprotective proteins
which help cells to survive recurrent cellular stress events. Identifying the underlying
molecular mechanisms and molecular targets is especially interesting since it may help to
develop new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of diseases. Objective: This review
will focus on the group of small heat shock proteins, also named HspBs. HspBs play an
important role in various neurological diseases. Most neurodegenerative diseases are characterized
by a distinct pathology with accumulation and aggregation of misfolded proteins,
such as deposits of amyloid plaques or neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer`s disease. Such
pathological protein aggregates are thought to lead to cellular dysfunction and finally to
cell death. HspBs display chaperone-like functions and are able to prevent protein aggregation
by which they may slow down progression of these diseases. However, HspBs have
multiple additional functions which also may contribute to neuroprotection.
Results/Conclusions: In this review we will first give an overview of the HspB protein family,
their structure, functions and expression pattern. Then we will highlight their impact in the brain, in neurodegenerative
diseases and especially in Alzheimer`s disease and try to unravel their multifactorial effects in
several aspects of the disease pathologies.
