STRESS-INDUCIBLE RESPONSES AND HEAT-SHOCK PROTEINS - NEW PHARMACOLOGICAL TARGETS FOR CYTOPROTECTION

Molecular chaperones protect proteins against environmental and physio logic stress and from the deleterious consequences of an imbalance in protein homeostasis. Many of these stresses, if prolonged, result in d efective development and pathologies associated with a diverse array o f diseases due to tissue injury and repair including stroke, myocardia l reperfusion damage, ischemia, cancer, amyloidosis, and other neurode generative diseases. We discuss the molecular nature of the stress sig nals, the mechanisms that underlie activation of the heat shock respon se, the role of heat shock proteins as cytoprotective molecules, and s trategies for pharmacologically active molecules as regulators of the heat shock response.