Heat Shock Proteins Delivered With a Virus Vector Can Protect Cardiac Cells Against Apoptosis As Well As Against Thermal or Hypoxic Stress

Over expression of heat shock proteins (hsps) by transfection of plasmid constructsin vitroand in transgenic animalsin vivocan protect primary cardiac cells from subsequent exposure to severe thermal or hypoxic stress. Here we show that such protection can also be achieved by over-expressing the hsps using herpes simplex virus (HSV) vectors capable of efficient gene deliveryin vivo. Moreover, the convenience and high efficiency of this system has allowed us to show, for the first time, that over-expression of hsp27 or hsp70 can protect cardiac cells against three different apoptosis-inducing stimuli as well as against thermal or hypoxic stress whereas hsp56 has no protective effect. The potential therapeutic use of inducing the over-expression of specific hsps in cardiac cellsin vivousing pharmacological or gene therapy procedures is discussed.