Scientists Call for Halt to Creation of Mirror Bacteria, Warning of Global Risk to Life

 

By James Myers

Genetic engineering of mirror bacteria, which don’t occur naturally, is becoming increasingly possible thanks to advances in chemistry and synthetic biology. While these mechanisms could provide some important benefits, according to a newly published study, mirror bacteria could also pose a risk of lethal infections if they multiply uncontrollably and evade the human body’s natural immune defences.

In December, twenty-four authors published a 299-page paper outlining the scientific and technical feasibility of creating mirror bacteria and the harms they could cause to plant, animal, and human life. The paper, Technical Report on Mirror Bacteria: Feasibility and Risks, was accompanied by an article published in the journal Science entitled Confronting risks of mirror life.

Mirror bacteria would disrupt an important property of molecules in living organisms called “chirality.” A molecule is chiral if it can’t be superposed onto its mirror image, making one molecule distinguishable from another even though they both have the same biological properties. A chiral molecule differentiates itself from its counterparts because it can’t be stacked with the same alignment onto its reflection, similar to how you can’t align your fingers and thumbs when you slide one hand on top of the other with both palms facing in the same direction.

 

 

 

Molecular chirality allows living organisms to track and manage an individual molecule in a group of the same molecules, by differentiating between their mirror images.

Nature ensures chirality by rotating molecules in different directions. For example, DNA and RNA molecules that provide instructions for building an organism operate in double helix with a right-handed spiral, while proteins, which are comprised of amino acids and are the building blocks of living organisms, operate in a left-handed spiral.

The authors explain that “Just as a right-handed glove cannot fit a left hand, the molecules within a mirror bacterium would not “fit” the opposite-handed molecules found in nature.”

 

 

Although it’s thought that the technology to engineer mirror organisms would require more than a decade to develop, the authors state that the mechanisms “constitute a radical departure from known life, and their creation warrants careful consideration.” They call for “broader discussion among the global research community, policymakers, research funders, industry, civil society, and the public to chart an appropriate path forward.”

The authors warn that either accidentally or through deliberate misuse, it “appears plausible, even likely, that sufficiently robust mirror bacteria could spread through the environment unchecked by natural biological controls and act as dangerous opportunistic pathogens in an unprecedentedly wide range of other multicellular organisms, including humans.”

 

 

Immune systems typically identify and target dangerous pathogens from their specific interactions in the human body or other living hosts.

Since mirror bacteria would lack chirality and therefore be indistinguishable in a living organism, it’s thought that they would not bind in the same way with the host’s cells. As a result, the pattern of molecular interactions would not be detected by the immune system’s invader-fighting T cells and other defensive mechanisms..

The paper further warns of chain reactions that could occur throughout ecological systems. “Mirror bacteria may directly drive vulnerable plant and animal species to extinction, and the loss of vulnerable ‘keystone species’ could indirectly trigger severe ecological disruptions. Very large mirror bacterial populations, especially autotrophic mirror bacteria, may disrupt nutrient cycling in many ecosystems, and could impact the global carbon cycle.”

Autotrophic organisms can convert non-living energy sources from chemicals and other environmental elements into energy that is stored in organic compounds for use by living organisms. 

One of the paper’s authors, Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov, told the Yale School of Medicine journal that there are several reasons for the extreme danger that mirror bacteria could pose. As he stated:

“One is the fact that if such bacteria are created, they will not be controlled by normal ecological factors. One major factor that controls bacterial population sizes is competition with other bacteria for resources. Another is bacteriophages [which literally means, “bacteria-eater”], which are viruses that infect bacteria and play a critical role in regulating the populations of bacteria in the biosphere. Mirror bacteria would likely not be susceptible to bacteriophages due to incompatibility of molecular interactions.”

Laboratories have been pursuing mirror organism development for several reasons, including achieving a better understanding of how living organisms are constructed in order to develop improved treatments for medical disorders.

Government agencies, including the U.S. National Science Foundation, the MirrorBio consortium of the European Commission, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, have provided research funding for the development of mirror organisms.  

An example of a potential benefit that some are pursuing could be the creation of short chains of amino acids, called peptides, which help to connect drug therapies and target cells. Chiral peptides, however, suffer from biological instability because they can be degraded by certain enzymes called proteases. A research goal is to create stable peptides that can deliver drugs more efficiently and effectively to treatment targets.

“All the practical applications that drew us into this field are the reasons we’re terrified of it now,” Dr. Katarzyna Adamala, a University of Minnesota synthetic biologist and co-author of the paper, told Scientific American. Adamala was once among the researchers working to create mirror organisms, and like many once thought that the creations would not survive outside a laboratory when it’s now accepted that there are enough nutrients in the natural environment to sustain them.

Technology that could enable mirror bacteria engineering is advancing, with AI providing greater capacity and automation in synthesizing the many proteins that would be required.

The authors of the paper note that researchers succeeded in 2022 in creating a mirror image of an RNA structure consisting of 883 amino acids, and they describe pathways for innovation that could plausibly lead to perfecting the process.

The paper describes some possible countermeasures for an uncontrolled replication of mirror bacteria, which might include chemical compounds that could disrupt mirroring when most antibiotics would be ineffective. While possible in theory, much effort would be required to develop and then deliver the compounds to people, animals, and plants suffering an attack of the organisms.

The paper’s thorough assessment of the risks of mirror organisms highlights issues with the increasing power of bioengineering technologies when there are few effective means of international regulation. Last September, The Quantum Record’s feature Editing Our Human Selves: Will Quantum Computing’s Potential Increase the Risks or the Benefits? explored the potential of quantum computers to enhance the capability of CRISPR technology now being used to edit the human genome. 

 

 

The power to edit the human genome has already been abused, with the actions of scientist He Jiankui receiving international attention.

In 2018, Jiankui edited the genome of three human embryos, in violation of scientific and international standards against human genome experimentation. After a three-year jail sentence, Jiankui is back in his laboratory and declares pride for the work that led to his imprisonment because his intention was to create babies immune to HIV.

With research laboratories located in many nations and subject to differing legislation and enforcement, how can the creation of mirror organisms be controlled to avoid potentially catastrophic planet-wide consequences? The question remains unanswered, although increasing public awareness and discussion, as the paper’s authors recommend, is an important start.

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