Peptide directoryHeart, vessels & kidneys

ELABELA

The second apelin receptor hormone, hidden in a “non-coding” gene until 2013.

Where it comes from

Made in
Embryonic stem cells and the early embryo; the kidney, placenta and blood vessels in adults
Sent out by
Early in development before apelin appears; in adults, poorly known
Acts on
  • Heart precursors in the embryo
  • Kidney
  • Vessels
  • Placenta

What it does

  • Required for the heart to form in zebrafish and for the embryo’s cells to move during gastrulation 1
  • Lowers blood pressure and strengthens the heart like apelin 1
  • Protects the kidney in animal injury models

In medicine

  • No medicine and no clinical test. Low blood ELABELA is reported in pre-eclampsia, from small studies using assays nobody has standardised 2
  • Mice that cannot make it develop a pre-eclampsia-like illness, and giving it back prevented the illness; that is the strongest reason anyone looks at it in pregnancy 2

Beyond the body’s own use

  • Stabilised ELABELA fragments protect the heart and the kidney in animal injury models. Nothing has reached a human trial
  • It was missed for years because its gene was annotated as non-coding, and for many readers the lesson rather than the peptide is the point: a hormone can hide in a region a genome browser calls silent 1
  • Nothing is in human use. What would move it forward is an assay people agree on, because the pre-eclampsia findings rest on measurements different kits do not reproduce 2

Sources

  1. Chng et al., ELABELA: a hormone essential for heart development signals via the apelin receptor, Developmental Cell 2013
  2. Ho et al., ELABELA deficiency promotes preeclampsia and cardiovascular malformations in mice, Science 2017

This card describes what a medicine is for and what the evidence says; it recommends nothing. Talk to your clinician about anything you read here.