Dermcidin-α: Green Variant of Dermcidin, Human Antimicrobial Peptide in Sweat†

10.1021/bi0160516 CCC: $22.00 © 2002 American Chemical Society Published on Web 04/01/2002 ABSTRACT: Dermcidin (DCD), an recently discovered antimicrobial peptide, plays a role in the innate response by regulating human skin flora in sweat. Here we describe the isolation of the gene of a variant of dermcidin, designated as DCD-α. This variant has 75% homology to dermcidin and has been found in an isolated population in the Central Pacific Basin only. This DCD variant possesses 15 extra amino acid residues that are not found in the native form. Specifically, it consists of 125 amino acids in its precursor peptide and 63 amino acids in the processed form. The proteolytic cleavages of the precursor by kininase followed by kallikrein give rise to the mature peptide, DCDα1. DCD-α1 has absorbance at the 400nm and 700nm regions of the visible light spectrum and is viewed as green. The colour of the peptide is most intesnse at pH 5.5. We speculate that DCD-α1 may possess similar anti-microbial properties as its native form. However, futher experiments are needed to elucidate the antimicrobial activities of DCD-α1 Jedy Go§, Madonna A. de Lemos,§ Joanna Ip,§ Wei-Hung W. Kuo,*,§ Nikolaus Blin, Helen Chiu,§ Dina Anastas,§ and Gernot Rassner,‡ Claus Garbe,‡