Interactions between Hsp90 and oncogenic viruses: implications for viral cancer therapeutics.

Oncogenic viruses are the etiologic agents for a significant proportion of human cancers, but effective therapies and preventative strategies are lacking for the majority of virus-associated cancers. Targeting of virus-induced signal transduction or virus-host protein interactions may offer novel therapeutic strategies for viral cancers. Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a well-characterized, multifunctional molecular chaperone involved in regulation of signal transduction, transcriptional activation, oncogenic protein stabilization, and neovascularization-pathogenic elements relevant to viral cancer pathogenesis. This review will summarize mechanistic concepts involving regulation of viral oncogenesis by both intracellular and extracellular Hsp90, as well as current therapeutic implications of these data.