A recent study by a team of researchers from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany was recently published in the journal Microorganisms. The results suggest that the extraterrestrial microorganisms recovered during space missions would present a potential immunological risk for humans, and therefore astronauts on the front line.
Indeed, according to the researchers, it has been shown that the cellular immune reaction of mammals vis-à-vis the peptides commonly observed in carbonaceous meteorites is weak compared to the same responses vis-à-vis the peptides encountered on Earth. .
Photo by Tibor Janosi Mozes. Pixabay credits
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Clearly, we are not really equipped to deal with microorganisms from space.
Problematic extraterrestrial amino acids
On Earth, the engineering of living things revolves essentially around 22 kinds of amino acids. Amino acids quite different from those found in the solar ecosystem. In fact, quite a bit of “unusual” sugars and amino acids have been found on carbon meteorites.
The researchers specify that the peptides identified on these meteorites essentially include two amino acids including isovaline and α-aminoisobutyric acid. Two amino acids that are not frequently found in terrestrial organisms, especially mammals, including humans.
One thing leading to another, this suggests that the protein antigens contained in microorganisms of extraterrestrial origin are very likely also made up of these rare amino acids. Which would not be beneficial to us at all.
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How do human immune cells react?
To find out more, the researchers conducted a study on mice, inoculating them with isovaline and α-aminoisobutyric acid. As a result, they observed a weak reaction of the immune T cells to these two amino acids.
Simply, cell response was less efficient only when T cells are subjected to antigens mainly made up of amino acids unique to our terrestrial ecosystem. Indeed, the levels of cellular activation for immunity were 15% and 61% against 82% and 91% for amino acids of terrestrial origin.
And the same result was observed during an experiment carried out on another mammal.
Scientists tried to see if the latter’s immune system could recognize chemically synthesized “exopeptides”. They then found that the T lymphocytes which recognized these exo-peptides were activated, but with a response of low efficiency than for the peptides common on Earth.
Something to make us seriously think about what awaits us in space and on other worlds.
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