Cytidine Deaminase (CDA)

Cytidine deaminase  forms a homotetramer that catalyzes the irreversible hydrolytic deamination of cytidine and deoxycytidine to uridine and deoxyuridine, respectively. It is one of several deaminases responsible for maintaining the cellular pyrimidine pool. Mutations in this gene are associated with decreased sensitivity to the cytosine nucleoside analogue cytosine arabinoside used in the treatment of certain childhood leukemias.

Kuhn et al. (1993) identified a cDNA clone corresponding to the human CDA gene in a study of expression products related to monocyte and macrophage differentiation. The deduced 145-residue protein has a molecular mass of 16.1 kD and shows nearly 50% homology to cytidine deaminase from Bacillus subtilis.