Heat shock proteins as a cancer vaccine candidate

Tumor cells express antigens that can be recognized by immune system as foreign particles. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are molecular chaperones that bind to tumor antigens and mediate their uptake into antigen presenting cells.
This articles is a review article and its data has been collected and categorized from the articles in the field of cancer immunotherapy. All the articles were valid and searched from science engines like ScienceDirect, Elsevier, Springer and so on) and it has been tried to refer to the information of the most recent articles in these fields.
HSP antigen complexes are then directed toward either the MHC class I pathway through antigen cross presentation or the conventional class II pathway, leading to activation of T cell subsets. The processes involved in internalization of HSP–antigen complexes differ somewhat from the mechanisms determined for single antigens. Accordingly these complexes can be used as component of tumor vaccines and participate in antitumor immunity. Such vaccines generate impressive immune responses and elicit specific, protective immunity.
When purified from a tumor, certain HSP-peptide complexes can function as effective vaccines against the tumor from which the complexes were isolated.