Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

DEFB128

Beta-defensin 128

Also known as: DB128_HUMAN, DEFB-28

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

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
Q7Z7B8
Gene
DEFB128
Ensembl
ENSG00000185982
Chromosome
20
Canonical length
93 aa
Protein class
Predicted secreted proteins
Secretome location
Secreted in male reproductive system

OverviewNCBI Gene

Defensins are cysteine-rich cationic polypeptides that are important in the immunologic response to invading microorganisms. The antimicrobial protein encoded by this gene is secreted and is a member of the beta defensin protein family. Beta defensin genes are found in several clusters throughout the genome, with this gene mapping to a cluster at 20p13. [provided by RefSeq, Nov 2014]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

93 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>Q7Z7B8|DEFB128
     1  MKLFLVLIIL LFEVLTDGAR LKKCFNKVTG YCRKKCKVGE RYEIGCLSGK LCCANDEEEK
    61  KHVSFKKPHQ HSGEKLSVLQ DYIILPTITI FTV

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against DEFB128 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
0
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.56
Highest tissue expression
1,125 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • epididymis: 1,125 nTPM
  • adipose tissue: 0 nTPM
  • adrenal gland: 0 nTPM
  • amygdala: 0 nTPM
  • appendix: 0 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 0 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • epididymal principal cells: 469 nCPM
  • epididymal basal cells: 1.5 nCPM
  • epididymal efferent duct ciliated cells: 1.3 nCPM
  • vascular smooth muscle cells: 0.4 nCPM
  • pericytes: 0.3 nCPM
  • t-cells: 0.3 nCPM

Immune cell

  • basophil: 0 nTPM
  • classical monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • eosinophil: 0 nTPM
  • gdT-cell: 0 nTPM
  • intermediate monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • MAIT T-cell: 0 nTPM

Brain region

  • white matter: 0.1 nTPM
  • amygdala: 0 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 0 nTPM
  • cerebellum: 0 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 0 nTPM
  • choroid plexus: 0 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)
1.72
gnomAD pLI
0.4
gnomAD missense Z
-0.85
DepMap mean gene effect
-0.03
DepMap dependency class
selective

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 1% of surveyed tumor types (aggregate summary; per-cohort expression, alteration, and survival load in the interactive view).

OntologyGO

Biological processes

Cellular components

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

KeywordsUniProt

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads DEFB128 as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against DEFB128 could matter depends on whether native DEFB128 is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

DEFB128 is annotated as secreted, so native DEFB128 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 DEFB128 as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/DEFB128. 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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