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French scientists have discovered a new blood group in a woman on the Caribbean island in Guadeloupe, the French blood supply agency announced on Friday.
The woman is the only carrier known to a new blood group, nicknamed “Gwada negative”, the According to the establishment of French blood (EFS). The discovery was made 15 years after the researchers received a blood sample from a patient who suffered routine tests before surgery.
“The EFS has just discovered the 48th blood group system in the world!” The agency said in a press release on Linkedin social networkAdding that the discovery was officially recognized by the International Blood Transfusion Company in early June.
The scientific association had so far Recognized blood group systems.
Thierry Peyrard, an EFS medical biologist involved in the discovery, told AFP that a very unusual “antibody had been found for the first time in the patient in 2011. However, the resources at the time did not allow additional research, he added.
Scientists were finally able to disentangle the mystery in 2019 thanks to “the sequencing of broadband DNA”, which highlighted a genetic mutation, said Peyrard.
The patient, who was 54 years old at the time and lived in Paris, suffered routine tests before surgery when the unknown antibody was detected, Peyrard said.
This woman “is undoubtedly the only case known in the world,” he said, adding: “She is the only person in the world who is compatible with herself.”
The medical biologist said that the woman had inherited the blood group of her father and mother, who each had the transferred gene.
The name “Gwada negative”, which refers to the origins of the patient and “sounds well in all languages”, was popular with experts, said Peyrard.
The Abo blood group system was discovered for the first time in the early 1900s. Thanks to DNA sequencing, the discovery of new blood groups has accelerated in recent years.
Peyrard and his colleagues now hope to find other people with the same blood group.
“The discovery of new blood groups means providing patients with rare blood groups a better level of care,” said EFS.
