Molecular Chaperones in Chronic Disease: The Role, Mechanism and Therapeutic Potential

Dear Colleagues,

Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs) play a significant role as molecular chaperones in maintaining cellular proteostasis for survival through various biological processes such as protein folding, trafficking, assembly, disassembly and degradation. Several studies have highlighted molecular chaperones to be the most important class of proteins associated with many chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease (HD) and Cancer, etc., via changes in their expression and localization; hence, the reason they are considered as potential targets for the development of selective therapeutic drugs. In addition to molecular biology specifying the role and mechanism of chaperones for disease progression, medicinal chemistry also plays a vital role in the development of selective therapeutic agents by targeting molecular chaperones based on Structural Activity Relationship (SAR) studies, as well as virtual computational tools. Many selective HSP inhibitors are currently being evaluated at different phases of clinical trials for various therapeutic benefits. Moreover, emerging studies have started to uncover various key mechanisms of chaperones in different chronic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Therefore, considering the importance of molecular chaperones, we offer an open access forum in the Special Issue of Cells, aiming to compile original research and review articles addressing the cellular and molecular mechanisms of chaperones and, through targeting them, to suggest potential and promising therapeutic approaches to cure chronic diseases. We highly welcome the original research articles of in vitro and in vivo models, potential therapeutic compounds targeting heat shock proteins to treat related disease conditions and their medicinal chemistry, comprehensive and up-to-date reviews that summarize the current situation and future directions in this area.

Dr. Sahil Sharma
Dr. Chander Singh Digwal
Dr. Sridhar Nerella
Dr. Harbinder Singh
Guest Editors

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• chaperones
• chronic disease
• role and mechanism of chaperones
• chaperone inhibitors