HSP25 As a Molecular Target for Radiation Therapy

Abstract

Radiation therapy plays a critical role in the management of a majority of patients diagnosed with cancer. Identification factors that help predict which patients are at risk for relapse within the irradiated field remains an active area of investigation. Although conventional clinical and pathological factors have been helpful in identifying risk and guiding clinical decision-making for both local and systemic management, there is clearly a need to identify additional prognostic markers, which can aid in refining our treatment strategies and improving outcomes. A substantial amount of research efforts have been devoted to identifying molecular markers fro prognostic and therapeutic strategies. Heat shock proteins (HSP) are a large family of proteins with different molecular weights and different intracellular localizations and HSP25/HSP27 belongs to the small heat shock proteins. Recently HSP25/27 reported that it acts as emerging anti-apoptotic molecules. In the present study, we described molecular signaling of HSP27/25 in predictor of radiation sensitivity, especially focused on inhibition of PKCdelta-mediated apoptosis.