Heat shock protein vaccines against glioblastoma: from bench to bedside

Current adjuvant treatment regimens available for the treatment of glioblastoma are widely ineffective and offer a dismal prognosis. Advancements in conventional treatment strategies have only yielded modest improvements in overall survival. Immunotherapy remains a promising adjuvant in the treatment of GBM through eliciting tumor specific immune responses capable of producing sustained antitumor response while minimizing systemic toxicity. Heat shock proteins (HSP) function as intracellular chaperones and have been implicated in the activation of both innate and adaptive immune systems. Vaccines formulated from HSP-peptide complexes, derived from autologous tumor, have been applied to the field of immunotherapy for glioblastoma. The results from the phase I and II clinical trials have been promising. Here we review the role of HSP in cellular function and immunity, and its application in the treatment of glioblastoma.