Heat Shock Protein 70 in Alzheimer’s Disease

• Main Authors: Rui-Chun Lu, Meng-Shan Tan, Hao Wang, An-Mu Xie, Jin-Tai Yu, Lan Tan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2014-01-01
• Series: BioMed Research International
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/435203

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease that caused dementia which has no effective treatment. Growing evidence has demonstrated that AD is a “protein misfolding disorder” that exhibits common features of misfolded, aggregation-prone proteins and selective cell loss in the mature nervous system. Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) attracts extensive attention worldwide, because it plays a crucial role in preventing protein misfolding and inhibiting aggregation and represents a class of proteins potentially involved in AD pathogenesis. Numerous studies have indicated that HSP70 could suppress the progression of AD with in vitro and in vivo experiments. Thus, targeting HSP70 and the related compounds might represent a promising strategy for the treatment of AD.