Heat Shock, Cancer Style
In a study from CSU Fullerton, scientists used transcriptomic data to explore how human cells respond to heat shock at the molecular level. Their findings revealed both expected and unexpected stress responses, offering new insight into how cells cope under pressure (Reinschmidt et al., 2023).
What is Heat Shock Response?
You might have a had fever. This caused your body to undergo alot of stress, but instead of shutting down, it activates protective systems to help you recover and keep going.
All cells experience some form of stress, whether from heat, toxins, or infections. Heat stress, in particular, can cause proteins inside cells to misfold. When this happens, cells activate the Heat Shock Response (HSR), their built-in survival system.
What are Heat Shock Proteins?
Once the HSR is triggered, cells begin producing special proteins called heat shock proteins (HSPs). Their job includes:
Help proteins fold correctly
Repair damaged ones
Prevent future protein misfolding
In the CSU Fullerton study, researchers observed the expected activation of classic heat shock proteins like HSP70 and HSP90. But they also found activation of non-canonical responses which are genes not traditionally associated with heat shock (Reinschmidt et al., 2023).
This suggests the HSR is more complex and far-reaching than we previously thought, with variations depending on the cell type.
Cancer Cells Survival Strategy
Cancer cells are under constant stress. Low oxygen, exposure to radiation, and chemotherapy are just a few. But instead of dying under this pressure (as treatments intend), cancer cells ramp up their production of HSPs. Cancer cells hijack the heat shock response to avoid death.
By overactivating the HSR, cancer cells become practically immune, withstanding chemotherapy, radiation, and other treatments that would normally kill them. This ability to exploit the heat shock response is part of what makes cancer so difficult to treat.
Our Offense to Cancers Defense
The discovery of non-canonical HSR pathways opens new possibilities for cancer treatment. If we can figure out how to selectively block the amplified heat shock response in cancer cells, we could make them more vulnerable to therapy.
In other words, disabling cancer’s stress-coping tricks could improve the effects of chemotherapy and other treatment outcomes. Understanding how cancer cells produce HSPs differently than normal cells is key to reaching the full potential of cancer therapy.
This research shows how basic cell biology is important to real-world medicine. By uncovering new information on heat shock response, scientists have identified new targets to research that could be used to outsmart cancer and possibly other diseases that exploit stress responses
