Immunity for astronauts
Scientists have tested whether the body will be able to fight alien microbes
British scientists in a study on mice have shown that the mammalian immune system is able to detect microbes from other planets and respond to them. The results are published in the journal Microorganisms (Schaefer et al., A Weakened Immune Response to Synthetic Exo-Peptides Predicts a Potential Biosecurity Risk in the Retrieval of Exo-Microorganisms).
It is believed that microorganisms – bacteria and viruses – can exist outside the Earth. The detection of liquid water in several places in the Solar System increases this probability. There are plans to search for them on Mars and some satellites of Saturn and Jupiter and deliver samples to Earth. Eventually, one day, people will fly to Mars.
Biologists from the Universities of Aberdeen and Exeter decided to test whether the immune system will resist if alien microbes suddenly enter the human body.
"The world is now all too aware of the problem of immunity caused by the emergence of completely new pathogens," the press release says University of Exeter, the words of the head of the study, Professor Neil Gow from the Center for Medical Mycology. – As a thought experiment, we wondered what would happen if we were exposed to a microorganism that was brought from another planet where life evolved. Will our immune system be able to detect proteins derived from extraterrestrial building blocks?"
Terrestrial organisms are built on the basis of 22 amino acids – the key building blocks of life. Scientists have suggested that microorganisms from other planets may contain other amino acids in their structure.
They synthesized in the laboratory two types of "exopeptides" – combinations of amino acids not found on Earth, but found in large quantities in carbonaceous meteorites – isovalin and α-aminoisobutyric acid, and tested how the immune cells of mice react to them. It turned out that the activation of rodent T-cells, which are key to the start of immune reactions, was less effective – 15 and 61 percent, respectively, compared with 80-90 percent activation when exposed to peptides consisting exclusively of "terrestrial" amino acids, but it was still present. "The immune response to "alien" peptides was less effective than the response to those that are common on Earth," says lead author of the study, Dr. Katja Schaefer from the University of Exeter. "Therefore, we assume that contact with extraterrestrial microorganisms may pose an immunological risk for space missions aimed at searching for organisms on exoplanets and satellites." The authors note that the results were obtained in mice, whose immune cells function the same as in humans, and tested in the laboratory. However, this is only preliminary data based on a high proportion of assumptions and assumptions.
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