Intriguingly, emerging evidence suggests a novel membrane targeting and membrane disrupting mechanism, in which defensins including NaD1, human β-defensin 2 (HBD-2) and human β-defensin 3 (HBD-3) can preferentially bind specific phosphoinositides, ultimately leading to membrane permeabilisation in tumour, fungal and bacterial cells (Figure 1F) (elaborated below) [6,14–16]. The gene discussed is MT-ND1; the disease is neoplasm.