Heat shock factor 1 is a potent therapeutic target for enhancing the efficacy of treatments for multiple myeloma with adverse prognosis

Deregulated expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) encoding genes is frequent in multiple myeloma. HSPs, which are molecular chaperones involved in protein homeostasis pathways, have emerged recently as promising therapeutic targets. Using human myeloma cell lines and primary myeloma cells belonging to various molecular groups, we tested the efficacy of HSP90, HSP70, and heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) inhibitors alone or associated with current antimyeloma drugs. We report here that KNK-437 (an inhibitor of HSF1) and bortezomib have additive effects on apoptosis induction in cells belonging to groups with bad prognosis. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13045-015-0135-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.