Brain recovery treatment after stroke found

Heat shock proteins HSP70 can become a salvation for neurons after stroke

Heat shock proteins HSP70, which are naturally produced in the body when temperature rises, can play a key role in the recovery of nerve cells after stroke, researcher Gennady Pyavchenko told "Gazeta.Ru".

HSP70 are involved in a whole complex of molecular mechanisms that directly affect the survival of neurons. They regulate inflammatory processes, block the initiation of programmed cell death, provide protection for proteins during their formation, and mark damaged proteins with special molecular tags, thanks to which the cell directs dangerous elements for disposal.

During experiments, scientists created lines of mice with increased production of heat shock proteins. These rodents were crossed with other lines that modeled diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. Research results demonstrated that therapy using HSP70 can be effective in almost any condition associated with the appearance of improperly formed proteins in cells, including ischemic stroke.

"The key result is the positive effect on neuron survival and overall life expectancy, provided by the simultaneous presence of pathological proteins and heat shock proteins HSP70 in the cell. We see the demand for these results and believe that they bring this direction closer to the ultimate goal - creating potential drugs for neuroprotection.

We investigated which effects make sense to consider, and concluded that there are no obvious structural changes in the body when HSP70 content increases. There are several obstacles on the way to implementing HSP70 in clinical practice. The main and obvious one is that they are involved in such a large number of interactions that their use may in some cases become a kind of cutting the Gordian knot instead of carefully untying it. For example, in cancer, the tumor can "use" the ability of HSP70 to protect against cell death, and then this nominally useful property can be dangerous. The challenge is to find an approach to activate the desired effects of HSP70 while minimizing unwanted ones," said Pyavchenko.