OnCo

DEFA1 (Neutrophil defensin 1) is a gene. The public catalogues list it as a drug target and a biomarker, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Prostate cancer. This dossier gathers the 0 products (0 approved), 0 trials, 0 pathways and 0 resistance routes in the corpus that involve it, with external identifiers so it can be joined to UniProt, ChEMBL, Open Targets and the rest of biology.

Biology

Effector molecule of the innate immune system that acts via antibiotic-like properties against a broad array of infectious agents including bacteria, fungi, and viruses or by promoting the activation and maturation of some APCs. Interacts with the essential precursor of cell wall synthesis lipid II to inhibit bacterial cell wall synthesis. Inhibits adenovirus infection via inhibition of viral disassembly at the vertex region, thereby restricting the release of internal capsid protein pVI, which is required for endosomal membrane penetration during cell entry. In addition, interaction with adenovirus capsid leads to the redirection of viral particles to TLR4 thereby promoting a NLRP3-mediated inflammasome response and interleukin 1-beta (IL-1beta) release. Induces the production of proinflammatory cytokines including type I interferon (IFN) in plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) by triggering the degradation of NFKBIA and nuclear translocation of IRF1, both of which are required for activation of pDCs. Location: Secreted (UniProt). Locus 8p23.1 (HGNC).

Where it is found
  • Prostate cancer: CIViC evidence names this disease
Class: other · Gene: DEFA1 · Facts checked 2026-09-23 · Target page

External identifiers

Built from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL ids

Products by modality and phase

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No product in the corpus is aimed at this target yet.

No trial in the corpus names this target or one of its products.

Resistance routes

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The resistance atlas has no route that names this target.

No pathway diagram carries this target as a node.

Companion diagnostics

Assay registry →

No companion diagnostic in the registry measures this target.

Preclinical models

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No model entry for this target yet; check the cancer entries on the models page.

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Literature

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Open in Europe PMC

Query for this target: (TITLE:"DEFA1" OR ABSTRACT:"DEFA1" OR TITLE:"defensin alpha 1" OR ABSTRACT:"defensin alpha 1" OR TITLE:"Neutrophil defensin 1" OR ABSTRACT:"Neutrophil defensin 1" OR TITLE:"HNP-1" OR ABSTRACT:"HNP-1" OR TITLE:"DEF1" OR ABSTRACT:"DEF1" OR TITLE:"DEFA2" OR ABSTRACT:"DEFA2") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about DEFA1, not a curated reading list.

Export

The dossier as machine-readable JSON: identifiers from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL, products with status, trials, pathways, hotspots, open questions and assays. The full entity record is in the open API at /api/v1/entities/defa1.json. Licence CC BY-NC 4.0.