The genes of a small sea creature shed light on the evolution of immunity

CREDIT: HUENE, A. L. ET AL., PNAS, 2022
PITTSBURGH, Sept. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- How a small marine invertebrate distinguishes its own cells from those of competitors has striking similarities to the human immune system, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The findings, now published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that the building blocks of our immune system evolved much earlier than previously thought and could help improve understanding of transplant rejection, one day guiding the development of new immunotherapies.

"For decades, researchers have wondered whether self-recognition in a sea creature called Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus was similar to the processes that control whether a piece of skin can be successfully grafted from one person to another," said senior author Matthew Nictora, Ph.D., an assistant professor of surgery and immunology at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplant Institute. "Our study shows for the first time that a special group of proteins called immunoglobulin superfamily, which are important for adaptive immunity in mammals and other vertebrates, are found in such a distantly related animal."