The human body ( when run properly ) has a pretty incredibleinbuilt security system , notice familiar or refreshing invaders and launch an attack in the form of an resistant response . A discovery deep at sea has thrown into dubiousness the all - seeing human resistant system , however , as new divulge " unseeable " microbes were establish to slip past our defenses without even being discover .

The disconcerting discovery was published in the journalScience Immunology , featuring bacteria discover in the world ’s largest and cryptical UNESCO World Heritage site near the Kiribati islands . Known as thePhoenix Islands Protected Area , it ’s one of the most distant patch on Earth   – with crew member being close to those on the ISS than terrestrial homo . Being quite so dramatically out in the sticks means that the marine haven contribute scientists the chance to see what life is like in the absence seizure of humans . conjoin by a wandering science laboratory and trusty steed SuBastian   – a remotely maneuver fomite   – the team could soar upwards around amass samples to culture back onboard .

Over three weeks back in 2017 , the team assemble bacterium samples . They want to see how they would interact with mammalian cells , using   cells of mice and humans to look into . They did this by removing the lipopolysaccharide shells of 50 dissimilar strains of bacterium and   putting them in a dish with one of the two mammalian cubicle groups . Intriguingly , 80 percent of those try failed to spark an immune reception from the mammalian cell they were bunk with .

The results seem to point that these bacteria strain are invisible to the human immune system , eliciting nothing in response to their front   – though it must be consider that their shell were pass on to run free with obscure cells in a petri dish and not inside a living human being ( any volunteers ? ) . As of yet , the researchers are unclear as to the chemical mechanism behind the bacterium ’s invisibleness cloak , but there did seem to be a correlation between long acyl Ernst Boris Chain ( protrusion that foil a bacteria ’s lipid layer ) and a want of immune response .

The fact that the bacterium have germinate in a space free of mammals – marine or otherwise   – with just 20 percent of those test stimulating an immune response , suggests that perhaps the efficacy of the human immune organisation is n’t as universal as we thought .

“ The Assumption of Mary of near - universal bacterial sensing by pattern acknowledgement receptor is a foundation of immunology , ” wrote the study author . “ However , LPS receptor were ineffective to find 80 % of bass - ocean bacteria examine … The inability of immune receptors to detect most bacteria from a different ecosystem suggests that traffic pattern recognition strategies may be defined topically , not globally . ”

[ H / T : Gizmodo ]