The Janus-Faced Role of Molecular Chaperones in Cancer: Pro-Tumoral or Therapeutic Function
A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 October 2025 | Viewed by 20
Special Issue Editors
Interests: neurodegeneration; molecular chaperones; stress response; proteostasis; oxidative stress; heat shock proteins; apoptosis; neuroinflammation; chaperonopathies; chaperonotherapies; cancer; mitochondria
Interests: neurodegenerative and neuromuscular disorders; neurodevelopmental disorders; anatomy; rare genetic diseases; chaperone system; bioinformatics; in silico studies; DNA sequencing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Molecular chaperones, which belong to the Chaperone System (CS), play a pivotal role in maintaining protein homeostasis (proteostasis) in physiological and pathological conditions such as cancer.
Recent findings have highlighted the dual role of molecular chaperones in carcinogenesis. These versatile proteins can either promote tumor initiation and progression or suppress its development by modulating multiple oncogenic signaling pathways and immune responses. Consequently, according to the context, molecular chaperones could be employed as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for evaluating the progression of cancer and its response to anti-tumor treatments, and as agents or targets for the development of innovative anti-tumoral therapeutic strategies.
This Special Issue aims to explore the multifaced role of molecular chaperones in cancer, providing a platform for the dissemination of innovative research and advancements in the study and application of these proteins.
This Special Issue welcomes the submission of experimental in vitro assays and in vivo studies, as well as articles that present novel in silico and computational approaches. These techniques, or their combination, may offer invaluable insights into the molecular mechanisms that underlie the function of chaperones and reveal their intricate involvement in carcinogenesis.
We look forward to receiving your submissions, which will undoubtedly enrich this interesting area of research.
Dr. Alessandra Maria Vitale
Dr. Federica Scalia
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- molecular chaperones
- cancer biology
- carcinogenesis
- tumor progression
- diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers
- anti-tumor therapeutic strategies
- in vitro/in vivo experimental approaches
- in silico computational approaches
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