This book provides the most up-to-date review on new mechanisms and provides exciting insights into how heat shock proteins modulate the hosts’ immune response. Written by leaders in the field of heat shock protein immunobiology, the chapters systematically and in a step-wise fashion take the reader through the fascinating sequence of events by which heat shock proteins activate immune responses and provide answers as to its biological significance to the host.

Experts from around the world review the current field of the immunobiology of heat shock proteins, and provide a comprehensive account of how these molecules are spearheading efforts in the understanding of various pathways of the immune system. This one-stop resource contains numerous images to both help illustrate the research on heat shock proteins, and better clarify the field for the non-expert. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) were discovered in 1962 and were quickly recognized for their role in protecting cells from stress. Twenty years later, the immunogenicity of a select few HSPs was described, and for the past 30 years, these findings have been applied to numerous branches of immunology, including tumor immunology and immunosurveillance, immunotherapy, etiology of autoimmunity, immunotherapy of infectious diseases, and expression of innate receptors. While HSPs can be used to manipulate immune responses by exogenous administration, they appear to be involved in initiation of de novo immune responses to cancer and likely in the maintenance of immune homeostasis.

This book provides the most up-to-date review on new mechanisms and provides exciting insights into how heat shock proteins modulate the hosts’ immune response. Written by leaders in the field of heat shock protein immunobiology, the chapters systematically and in a step-wise fashion take the reader through the fascinating sequence of events by which heat shock proteins activate immune responses and provide answers as to its biological significance to the host.

Heat shock proteins (HSP) have received ample interest by immunologists over recent years. Initially they were found to be dominantly immunogenic microbial antigens. The connection with inflammation was established when it was uncovered that T cells specific for these antigens have a crucial role in the induction and regulation of experimental arthritis. Since then, the raised presence of immunity to HSPs in virtually all conditions of inflammation, including autoimmune diseases, transplant rejection and atherosclerosis, has emphasised the critical significance of immunity to HSPs in inflammatory diseases.

Heat shock proteins are emerging as important molecules in the development of cancer and as key targets in cancer therapy. These proteins enhance the growth of cancer cells and protect tumors from treatments such as drugs or surgery. However, new drugs have recently been developed particularly those targeting heat shock protein 90. As heat shock protein 90 functions to stabilize many of the oncogenes and growth promoting proteins in cancer cells, such drugs have broad specificity in many types of cancer cell and offer the possibility of evading the development of resistance through point mutation or use of compensatory pathways. Heat shock proteins have a further property that makes them tempting targets in cancer immunotherapy. These proteins have the ability to induce an inflammatory response when released in tumors and to carry tumor antigens to antigen presenting cells. They have thus become important components of anticancer vaccines. Overall, heat shock proteins are important new targets in molecular cancer therapy and can be approached in a number of contrasting approaches to therapy.

Almost 30 years ago RITOSSA described a new puffing pattern in salivary gland chromosomes of Drosophila following heat shock. This was the first description of a heat shock response. For years, development in this field remained modest and it took another decade before the relevant gene products-the heat shock proteins (hsp's)-were made visible by TISSIERES and co-workers. Subsequently, progress advanced more rapidly and we can now state that studies on the heat shock response have contributed much to our understanding of various principles in molecular and cellular biology such as control of gene expression and regulation of protein translocation. More recently, the study of hsp's has converged with immunology. There are several reasons for this: The chaperone function of certain hsp's makes them particularly apt for central functions of immunity, including antigen presentation and immunoglobulin synthesis. Furthermore, an effective immune response is often caused or followed by stress situations as they arise during trauma, inflammation, transformation, infection, or autoimmune disease. Due to their abundance during stress, hsp's can provide prominent antigens in many of these situations. This volume contains 11 chapters written by well-known experts dealing with various facets of the fascinating liaison between hsp's and immunity. The particular relation of hsp's to the immune system may be best illustrated by their intimate association with the major histocompatibility gene complex. Still, as discussed by GONTHER, the relevance of this fact to our understanding of hsp functions in immunity remaif)s speculative.