Heat Shock Protein 60 (HSP60): Role in Skeletal Muscle Diseases and Novel Prospects for Therapy

Abstract

Eukaryotic Hsp60 is also known as mitochondrial chaperones (Chaperonin, Cpn60) as earlier it was considered to be present in mitochondria only. Last few years it has become clear that it is also present in cytosol, cell surface, extracellular space and in the peripheral blood. Hsp60 plays a vital role in quality control of proteins. It interacts with Hsp10 (resides in mitochondria, also named as Cpn10) to prepare native conformational protein from nascent polypeptides in the presence of ATP. Some other newly identified functions of Hsp60 include cell survival and proliferation. Hsp60 has significant role in various skeletal muscle wasting diseases like sarcopenia, cancer cachexia, sepsis, denervation, burns, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The present chapter describes a brief representative research efforts aimed to establish the role of Hsp60 in various skeletal muscle wasting conditions with the purpose to illustrate possible protective and therapeutic implications for developing novel approach to rectify them.