HSPs - Ambiguous Mediators of Immunity

Abstract

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) were discovered as polypeptides induced by stress that can be found in all kingdoms of cellular organisms. Their functions were, a first enigmatic and these proteins were thus classified by molecular weight, as in—Hsp27, Hsp70, Hsp90, Hsp110. More recently, each of these size-classified molecules has attributed a role in protein folding, and they thus came to be known, as a class, as molecular chaperones. However, the they possess properties beyond chaperoning. Indeed, their discovery in the extracellular spaces suggested roles in regulation of the immune responses.