2003; Ross et al. 2003; Singh et al. 2010). Hsp14 (also named hsp70L1) is a rather recently identified hsp70 protein (Wan et al. 2004) and is known to be located in ribosomes, probably playing a role in the folding of newly translated proteins (Otto et al. 2005). Accord- ingly, the rare alleles of the HSPA14 SNPs reported here could be hypothesized to enhance such activity and, thus, avoid accumulation of newly translated proteins during aging. However, hsp14 also enhances cellular immunity in dendrites, e.g., stimulating secre- α tion of for instance IL12 and TNF , and has therefore been suggested as an adjuvant for the treatment of cancer and infectious disease (Wu et al. 2005). An enhancement of such effects could intuitively be con- sidered to pose a positive effect on longevity, although the connection between immune regulatory processes and longevity is, as explained below, probably not that straightforward.

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