Hsp90 - Clinical Significance

Clinical Significance

Hsp90 plays apparently conflicting roles in the cell, as it is essential for both the creation and the maintenance as well as the destruction of proteins. Its normal function is critical to maintaining the health of cells, whereas its dysregulation may contribute to carcinogenesis. The ability of this chaperone to both stabilize the 26S proteasome (which enables the cell to degrade unwanted and/or harmful proteins) and to stabilize kinases against the same proteasome demonstrates its functional diversity. The uses of Hsp90 inhibitors in cancer treatment highlight Hsp90's importance as a therapeutic target.

Targeting Hsp90 with drugs has shown promising effects in clinical trials. For example, the Hsp90 inhibitor geldanamycin has been used as an anti-tumor agent. The drug was originally thought to function as a kinase inhibitor but was subsequently shown to be an Hsp90 inhibitor where it uses a compact conformation to insert itself into the ATP binding site.

HSP90 beta has been identified as one of the autoantigenic biomarkers and targets involved in human ovarian autoimmune disease leading to ovarian failure and thereby infertility.

Prediction and validation of the immunodominant epitope/s of HSP90 beta protein has been demonstrated using sera from infertile women having anti-HSP90 autoantibodies. The decapeptide EP6 (380-389)is a major immunogenic epitope of HSP90 followed by EP1 (1-12) and EP8 (488-498). Knowledge of binding epitopes on the autoantigen is necessary to understand the subsequent pathologic events. Predicted 3D structures of these peptides demonstrated that they exist in the loop conformation, which is the most mobile part of the protein. Also, analysis of the sequences of HSP90 beta across several species reveals that EP6 peptide forms a part of a well-conserved motif. A polyclonal antibody generated to the immunodominant epitope- EP6 confirms similar biochemical and cellular immunoreactivity as seen with the patients' sera with anti-HSP90 autoantibodies. The study might generate new tools for the detection of disease-inducing epitopes and a possible therapeutic intervention.