Discoveries
New role for protein suggests novel treatment for cancer
A protein that normally serves as an "escort" to other proteins in cells has a second, equally important responsibility, Dana-Farber scientists have discovered: alerting the immune system to infection and cancer.
Stuart Calderwood, Ph.D. (left), and Alexzander Asea, Ph.D.
The protein, called HSP70, has long been known as a "chaperone" for its ability to protect other proteins as they move from place to place inside cells. The discovery that it also serves as a "cytokine" — a substance that orchestrates the immune response — has led researchers to coin a new name for it. They have proposed that it be called a "chaperokine."
Because of its newfound role in alerting the immune system to infection and cancer, researchers Alexzander Asea, Ph.D., and Stuart Calderwood, Ph.D., of Adult Oncology, believe HSP70 might be used in new immune-based therapies against cancer. They are currently working to develop it into a novel vaccine for breast and prostate cancers.
Other Dana-Farber investigators contributing to the study were Stine-Kathrein Kraeft, M.D., Lan Bo Chen, M.D., with Evelyn Kurt-Jones, Ph.D., and Robert Finberg, M.D., formerly of Dana-Farber and now at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
The study was published in Nature Medicine, April 2000.
