On the abundance of intrinsically disordered proteins in the human proteome and its relation to diseases: there is no enrichment

TL;DR

This study compares the prevalence of intrinsically disordered proteins in human disease-related and non-disease proteins, finding no significant enrichment in disease proteins except a slight increase in cancer-related proteins.

Contribution

It challenges the assumption that intrinsically disordered proteins are more common in disease-related proteins by providing a comparative analysis across multiple disease categories.

Findings

Disorder frequency is similar in disease-related and non-disease proteins.

Cancer-related proteins tend to be more disordered than other human proteins.

No significant enrichment of disorder in proteins related to cardiovascular, diabetes, or neurodegenerative diseases.

Abstract

Intrinsically disordered proteins are fascinating the community of protein science since the last decade, at least. There is a well-established line of research that intends to reveal the crucial role played by intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) in the development of human diseases. The main argument is that IDPs are differentially more present in groups of disease-related proteins. In this note we compare the frequency of disorder in human proteins, both disease-related and not. The frequency of disorder is comparable in the two sub-groups of proteins. Disorder is widespread in human proteins, but it is not a specific pre-requisite of proteins involved in the development of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. A tendency of cancer-related proteins to be statistically more disordered than the rest of human proteins is confirmed.