Biology of Cell Stress Proteins

The topic of cell stress proteins or molecular chaperones/heat shock proteins now pervades many branches of the biological science and biomedicine. These proteins interest biochemists, biophysicists and structural biologists because of the complexity of their structures and of their functions. They intrigue molecular and cellular biologists who are trying to ascertain how their synthesis is controlled and what their overall role in the normal and stressed cell. Immunologists have been trying to determine their role in immune regulation for three decades as have virologists, bacteriologists and parasitologists their role in infection. Indeed, the latest infecting agent, the prion, turns out to be a rogue molecular chaperone. In the medical profession, molecular chaperones have been invoked in the pathology of just about every human disease. This has interested the pharmacologists who are now seeking ways of modulating molecular chaperones for therapeutic purposes. In the last decade or so it has become clear that molecular chaperones are secreted proteins with a range of intercellular signalling functions. This is exciting interest from the whole biomedical community including physiologists, psychologists and systems biologists. This short introduction, with its mention of most of the biological and biomedical specialities, shows that cell stress proteins are a very important topic in modern biology. Unfortunately, the literature on these proteins is: (i) voluminous; (ii) scattered throughout the biological and biomedical literature and (iii) because of terminology and the diversity of techniques used - very complex. The aim of the proposed volume is to cover the entire field of cell stress proteins - from their molecular structure to their epidemiology in human diseases - in a relatively short and easy-to-read textbook. This will be written for 3rd year undergraduates and for postgraduate scientists. It is proposed that if marketed at a reasonable price the proposed text will sell well simply because every biological scientist has to have some knowledge of these proteins and there is no textbook available. The authors of this book cover the three main areas of molecular chaperone biology: (i) biochemistry and cell biology of molecular chaperones; (ii) immunology and immunomodulation and (iii) extracellular signalling and systems biology.