A novel peptide called Elabela/Toddler (ELA), first identified in the fish Danio as critical for the development of the heart, has now been identified in the human cardiovascular system, by a team led by Dr Anthony Davenport and Dr Janet Maguire (Experimental Medicine & Immunotherapeutics) in collaboration with Professor Robert Glen (Chemistry) and published in Circulation.

The team showed that the peptide binds to a G-protein coupled receptor in Family A (protein targets for one third of all current medicines) and that expression was reduced in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). However, daily injections of ELA to replace the missing peptide attenuated the development of PAH in an animal model of this disease, suggesting a potential target for translational research. The peptide is intriguing because it was identified in a region of the genome that was previously classified as ‘non-coding’ suggesting further peptides remain to be discovered, that may be the natural ligands for the 57 remaining ‘orphan’ G-protein coupled receptors.