Heat shock 70kDa protein 1B, also known as HSPA1B, is a human gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

. This intron

Intron

An intron is any nucleotide sequence within a gene that is removed by RNA splicing to generate the final mature RNA product of a gene. The term intron refers to both the DNA sequence within a gene, and the corresponding sequence in RNA transcripts. Sequences that are joined together in the final...

less gene encodes a 70kDa heat shock protein

Heat shock protein

Heat shock proteins are a class of functionally related proteins involved in the folding and unfolding of other proteins. Their expression is increased when cells are exposed to elevated temperatures or other stress. This increase in expression is transcriptionally regulated...

 which is a member of the heat shock protein 70

Hsp70

The 70 kilodalton heat shock proteins are a family of ubiquitously expressed heat shock proteins. Proteins with similar structure exist in virtually all living organisms...

 family.

Function

In conjunction with other heat shock proteins, this protein stabilizes existing proteins against aggregation and mediates the folding of newly translated proteins in the cytosol and in organelles. It is also involved in the ubiquitin

Ubiquitin

Ubiquitin is a small regulatory protein that has been found in almost all tissues of eukaryotic organisms. Among other functions, it directs protein recycling.Ubiquitin can be attached to proteins and label them for destruction...

-proteasome

Proteasome

Proteasomes are very large protein complexes inside all eukaryotes and archaea, and in some bacteria.  In eukaryotes, they are located in the nucleus and the cytoplasm.  The main function of the proteasome is to degrade unneeded or damaged proteins by proteolysis, a chemical reaction that breaks...

 pathway through interaction with the AU-rich element RNA-binding protein 1. The gene is located in the major histocompatibility complex

Major histocompatibility complex

Major histocompatibility complex is a cell surface molecule encoded by a large gene family in all vertebrates. MHC molecules mediate interactions of leukocytes, also called white blood cells , which are immune cells, with other leukocytes or body cells...

 class III region, in a cluster with two closely related genes which encode similar proteins.

Disease linkage

Patients with chronic hepatitis B or hepatitis C

Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus . The infection is often asymptomatic, but chronic infection can lead to scarring of the liver and ultimately to cirrhosis, which is generally apparent after many years...

 virus infection who harbor a HSPA1B-1267 single nucleotide polymorphism

Single nucleotide polymorphism

A single-nucleotide polymorphism is a DNA sequence variation occurring when a single nucleotide — A, T, C or G — in the genome differs between members of a biological species or paired chromosomes in an individual...

 have a higher risk for developing hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either a viral hepatitide infection or cirrhosis .Compared to other cancers, HCC is quite a rare tumor in the United States...

.