The neuroprotective potential of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70)

In response to many metabolic disturbances and injuries, including stroke, neurodegenerative disease, epilepsy and trauma, the cell mounts a stress re sponse with induction of a variety of proteins, most notably the 70-kDa hea t shock protein (HSP70). Whether stress proteins are neuroprotective has be en hotly debated, as these proteins might be merely an epiphenomenon unrela ted to cell survival. Only recently, with the availability of transgenic an imals and gene transfer, has it become possible to overexpress the gene enc oding HSP70 to test directly the hypothesis that stress proteins protect ce lls from injury. A few groups have now shown that overproduction of HSP70 l eads to protection in several different models of nervous system injury. Th is review will cover these studies, along with the potential mechanisms by which HSP70 might mediate cellular protection.