# Heat Shock Response and Heat Shock Proteins: Current Understanding and Future Opportunities in Human Diseases

## TL;DR

This review explains how heat shock proteins protect cells from stress and explores their potential use in treating and diagnosing diseases.

## Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of heat shock proteins' mechanisms and their emerging roles in human disease therapies and diagnostics.

## Key findings

- Heat shock proteins are essential for cellular stress management and thermotolerance.
- HSP70, HSP90, and small HSPs are key players in protein folding and disease-related pathways.
- HSPs show promise as therapeutic agents and diagnostic markers for various diseases.

## Abstract

The heat shock response is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism that protects cells or organisms from the harmful effects of various stressors such as heat, chemicals toxins, UV radiation, and oxidizing agents. The heat shock response triggers the expression of a specific set of genes and proteins known as heat shock genes/proteins or molecular chaperones, including HSP100, HSP90, HSP70, HSP60, and small HSPs. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) play a crucial role in thermotolerance and aiding in protecting cells from harmful insults of stressors. HSPs are involved in essential cellular functions such as protein folding, eliminating misfolded proteins, apoptosis, and modulating cell signaling. The stress response to various environmental insults has been extensively studied in organisms from prokaryotes to higher organisms. The responses of organisms to various environmental stressors rely on the intensity and threshold of the stress stimuli, which vary among organisms and cellular contexts. Studies on heat shock proteins have primarily focused on HSP70, HSP90, HSP60, small HSPs, and ubiquitin, along with their applications in human biology. The current review highlighted a comprehensive mechanism of heat shock response and explores the function of heat shock proteins in stress management, as well as their potential as therapeutic agents and diagnostic markers for various diseases.