Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

DCD

Dermcidin

Also known as: AIDD, DCD_HUMAN, DCD-1, DSEP, HCAP, PIF

Cross-references: UniProt · Ensembl · Human Protein Atlas · GeneCards · NCBI Gene

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
P81605
Gene
DCD
Ensembl
ENSG00000161634
Chromosome
12
Canonical length
110 aa
Protein class
Plasma proteins, Predicted secreted proteins, Transporters
Secretome location
Secreted in other tissues
Quaternary structure
Homohexamer

OverviewNCBI Gene

This antimicrobial gene encodes a secreted protein that is subsequently processed into mature peptides of distinct biological activities. The C-terminal peptide is constitutively expressed in sweat and has antibacterial and antifungal activities. The N-terminal peptide, also known as diffusible survival evasion peptide, promotes neural cell survival under conditions of severe oxidative stress. A glycosylated form of the N-terminal peptide may be associated with cachexia (muscle wasting) in cancer patients. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms. [provided by RefSeq, Oct 2014]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

110 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>P81605|DCD
     1  MRFMTLLFLT ALAGALVCAY DPEAASAPGS GNPCHEASAA QKENAGEDPG LARQAPKPRK
    61  QRSSLLEKGL DGAKKAVGGL GKLGKDAVED LESVGKGAVH DVKDVLDSVL

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against DCD can act on the native protein depends on physical access: surface and secreted proteins are reachable by circulating antibodies, intracellular proteins usually are not.

Antibody reachability
Secreted
Secreted
Yes
Transmembrane segments
1
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.61
Highest tissue expression
3,314 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • skin: 3,314 nTPM
  • breast: 332 nTPM
  • salivary gland: 161 nTPM
  • adipose tissue: 134 nTPM
  • skeletal muscle: 13 nTPM
  • heart muscle: 1.5 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • smooth muscle cells: 114 nCPM
  • b-cells: 1.5 nCPM
  • late spermatids: 1.1 nCPM
  • early primary spermatocytes: 0.9 nCPM
  • loop of henle epithelial cells: 0.4 nCPM
  • early spermatids: 0.3 nCPM

Immune cell

  • basophil: 1.9 nTPM
  • neutrophil: 1.1 nTPM
  • NK-cell: 0.9 nTPM
  • non-classical monocyte: 0.7 nTPM
  • MAIT T-cell: 0.6 nTPM
  • T-reg: 0.6 nTPM

Brain region

  • cerebral cortex: 4.4 nTPM
  • white matter: 2.6 nTPM
  • choroid plexus: 2.1 nTPM
  • midbrain: 1.7 nTPM
  • amygdala: 1.5 nTPM
  • pons: 1.5 nTPM

Genetic constraint and essentialitygnomAD · DepMap

Does the body need this protein intact? Low LOEUF or a strong DepMap dependency means loss or blockade of the protein is likely to be felt.

gnomAD LOEUF (loss-of-function intolerance)
1.67
gnomAD pLI
0
gnomAD missense Z
-0.49
DepMap mean gene effect
0.02
DepMap dependency class
none

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 2% of surveyed tumor types (aggregate summary; per-cohort expression, alteration, and survival load in the interactive view).

OntologyGO

Biological processes

Molecular functions

Cellular components

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

KeywordsUniProt

InteractionsUniProt · HPA

Protein binding partners of DCD in the human serome: UniProt-annotated complex subunits plus reported interactors. Each links to its own Seroatlas record.

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads DCD as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against DCD could matter depends on whether native DCD is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

DCD is annotated as secreted, so native DCD circulates and is directly accessible to antibodies. Secreted and cell-surface proteins are the autoantibody targets most likely to act like drugs, blocking or depleting the native protein.

Annotation status

The present source text does not explicitly label DCD as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/DCD. Study-independent annotations aggregated from UniProt, Human Protein Atlas, PubMed, IEDB, Pfam, InterPro, Gene Ontology, AlphaFold, gnomAD, DepMap, ClinVar, TCGA. Catalog release seroatlas-reviewed-human-uniprot-20260313.

Seroatlas is the reference for exploring autoantibody and antibody serology at the human-protein level: the autoreactome and human serome, multiplex serology (HuProt, HuScan, VirScan, PhIP-Seq).

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