Dermcidin (DCD)

The protein contains 110 amino acids for an estimated molecular weight of 11284 Da.

 

DCD-1 displays antimicrobial activity thereby limiting skin infection by potential pathogens in the first few hours after bacterial colonization. Highly effective against E.coli, E.faecalis, S.aureus and C.albicans. Optimal pH and salt concentration resemble the conditions in sweat. Also exhibits proteolytic activity, cleaving on the C-terminal side of Arg and, to a lesser extent, Lys residues (PubMed:17448443).', 'Survival-promoting peptide promotes survival of neurons and displays phosphatase activity. It may bind IgG. (updated: Dec. 20, 2017)

Protein identification was indicated in the following studies:

  1. Goodman and co-workers. (2013) The proteomics and interactomics of human erythrocytes. Exp Biol Med (Maywood) 238(5), 509-518.
  2. Hegedűs and co-workers. (2015) Inconsistencies in the red blood cell membrane proteome analysis: generation of a database for research and diagnostic applications. Database (Oxford) 1-8.
  3. Bryk and co-workers. (2017) Quantitative Analysis of Human Red Blood Cell Proteome. J Proteome Res. 16(8), 2752-2761.
  4. D'Alessandro and co-workers. (2017) Red blood cell proteomics update: is there more to discover? Blood Transfus. 15(2), 182-187.
  5. Chu and co-workers. (2018) Quantitative mass spectrometry of human reticulocytes reveal proteome-wide modifications during maturation. Br J Haematol. 180(1), 118-133.

Methods

The following articles were analysed to gather the proteome content of erythrocytes.

The gene or protein list provided in the studies were processed using the ID mapping API of Uniprot in September 2018. The number of proteins identified and mapped without ambiguity in these studies is indicated below.
Only Swiss-Prot entries (reviewed) were considered for protein evidence assignation.

PublicationIdentification 1Uniprot mapping 2Not mapped /
Obsolete
TrEMBLSwiss-Prot
Goodman (2013)2289 (gene list)227853205992269
Lange (2014)123412347281224
Hegedus (2015)2638262202352387
Wilson (2016)165815281702911068
d'Alessandro (2017)18261817201815
Bryk (2017)20902060101081942
Chu (2018)18531804553621387

1 as available in the article and/or in supplementary material
2 uniprot mapping returns all protein isoforms as one entry

The compilation of older studies can be retrieved from the Red Blood Cell Collection database.

The data and differentiation stages presented below come from the proteomic study and analysis performed by our partners of the GReX consortium, more details are available in their published work.

No sequence conservation computed yet.

Interpro domains
Total structural coverage: 44%
Model score: 45

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No binding partner found

The reference OMIM entry for this protein is 606634

Dermcidin; dcd

CLONING

By screening subtracted primary melanoma and benign melanocytic nevus tissue cDNA libraries with cDNA arrays, Schittek et al. (2001) identified a cDNA encoding dermcidin, or DCD. The 110-amino acid DCD protein contains a sequence resembling cancer cachectic factor-1 (601084) and a survival-promoting peptide, Y-P30, but it has no homology with other antimicrobial peptides. Dot blot analysis showed no detectable expression of DCD. RT-PCR analysis detected DCD expression in skin, melanocytic nevus, and cutaneous melanoma tissue, but not in any other organ systems tested. In situ hybridization and immunodetection analyses demonstrated expression of DCD in the Golgi complex of dark mucous cells of secretory coils in dermal eccrine sweat glands, suggesting that DCD is a secreted protein. High performance liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and microsequence analysis of sweat showed a processed 47-amino acid DCD peptide with a calculated mass of 4.7 kD, compared with the expected 9.3 kD of full-length DCD without the signal peptide.

GENE FUNCTION

Schittek et al. (2001) found that a synthetic DCD-derived peptide, DCD-1L, composed of 48 C-terminal amino acids of DCD had dose- and time-dependent bactericidal and fungicidal activities in neutral or acidic (sweat-like) buffers. The fungicidal activity occurred at a higher but still physiologic concentration of DCD-1L compared with the bactericidal activity. These results suggested that DCD has a role in innate immune responses in skin. Using serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE), Porter et al. (2003) identified a SAGE tag that was present only in invasive breast carcinomas and their lymph node metastases. The transcript corresponding to this SAGE tag, DCD, encodes a secreted protein normally expressed only in the pons of the brain and sweat glands. Further studies demonstrated that DCD was overexpressed in approximately 10% of invasive breast carcinomas; in some cases its overexpression was coupled with a copy number gain at its locus (12q13.1), and its expression was associated with advanced clinical stage and poor prognosis. Expression of DCD in breast cancer cells promoted cell growth and survival and reduced serum dependency. Putative high- and low-affinity receptors for DCD were present on the cell surface of breast carcinomas and neurons of the brain. Based on these data, Porter et al. (2003) hypothesized that DCD may play a role in tumorigenesis by means of enhancing cell growth and survival in a subset of breast carcinomas. Atopic dermatitis (ATOD; see 603165) patients are prone to recurrent bacterial and viral infections and tend to have pronounced skin colonization with Staphylococcus aureus. Rieg et al. (2005) collected exercise-induced sweat from the foreheads of ATOD patients and controls who had not recently washed or been medicated and found that the levels of DCD or DCD-derived peptides, such as DCD1 and DCD1L, were significantly reduced in ATOD patients. Furthermore, DCD levels were even lower in ATOD patients with a history of infectious complications compared with ATOD patients without previous infectious complications. Sweating in healthy subjects led to a 46% reduction of viable skin surface bacteria, whereas sweating in ATOD patients led to only a 3% reduction. Rieg et al. (2005) concluded that decreased expression of DCD and DCD-derived peptides in ATOD patients correlates with clinical infectious complications that may contribute to th ... More on the omim web site

Subscribe to this protein entry history

Feb. 10, 2018: Protein entry updated
Automatic update: Entry updated from uniprot information.

Feb. 2, 2018: Protein entry updated
Automatic update: Uniprot description updated

Dec. 19, 2017: Protein entry updated
Automatic update: Uniprot description updated

Nov. 23, 2017: Protein entry updated
Automatic update: Uniprot description updated

March 16, 2016: Protein entry updated
Automatic update: OMIM entry 606634 was added.

Jan. 24, 2016: Protein entry updated
Automatic update: model status changed