Heat Shock Proteins in Fungal Infections

Abstract

A general homeostatic mechanism that protects cells and entire organisms from the deleterious effects of environmental stresses is termed the heat shock response. Its product, heat shock proteins (hsps), play major roles in many cellular processes that affect host-parasite interactions. An understanding of the role of hsps both in adaptation to the host environment and as antigens requires a detailed analysis of their regulation. Hsps of a large spectrum of infectious agents are among the dominant antigens recognized by the immune system. As a consequence of infection, fungi induce high levels of heat shock proteins whose sequences are astonishingly conserved in evolution. Stress proteins play important roles in host-parasite interactions and are of immunological importance, since some of them, hsp 60, hsp 70, and hsp 90, are among the most dominant antigens synthesized at the onset of infection by a large spectrum of pathogens and recognized by the host's immune system.