UK hematologists confirmed that the recently discovered Er system could be considered a new set of blood groups, the 44th to be described.
The specialist, Nicole Thornton, together with the team decided to investigate what could be behind some mysterious and rare antibodies that reacted to red blood cells and caused the death of newborns.
During the study, they worked with historical blood samples from just 13 people, collected over 40 years, and applied recent molecular analysis technologies to solve the puzzle.
After comparing the genes of the research patients, Thornton suspected that a protein called Piezo1, found on the surface of red blood cells, was involved in this antibody reaction.
Thus, the team of experts noted that the protein varies in people with different Er blood types. As a result of these small variations, blood cells with the more common Piezo1 protein appear foreign to the immune system of people who have rare variants of this same protein. “We work on rare cases,” Thornton said.
The suspicion that Piezo1 was the cause of blood incompatibility was verified by reacting these antibodies with the five natural variants of this protein (antigens), created in the laboratory with genetic engineering techniques.
“It was something you couldn’t have done a few years ago,” said Professor Ash Toye at the University of Bristol.
Specialists hope that, at a meeting of the International Society of Blood Transfusion, at the end of 2022, this new blood group system will be officially ratified. The effort to make the discovery was enormous, said Plymouth University professor Neil Avent.
VTV/WIL/JMP