Scientists find new forms of life inside humans

Every time we think we’re close to fully understanding the human body, something fresh and unexpected shows up. Recently, a team of researchers stumbled upon strange entities, or obelisks, living inside of human bodies that had escaped notice until now.

Their surprising presence challenges assumptions and raises pressing questions about what else might be lurking unseen inside us.

Hidden presence

These new visitors appear smaller than the viruses most people learn about in basic biology classes. Rather than behaving like familiar microbes, they introduce themselves as something different.

Their discovery came about when researchers began analyzing massive genetic libraries, searching for patterns that did not match any known organisms.

This unusual find was led by Nobel Prize winner in Medicine Andrew Fire, from Stanford University.

Calling them obelisks

What the researchers uncovered are entities they have chosen to call “obelisks.” They do not resemble typical life forms, and their name comes from their distinctive shape.

“The more we look, the crazier we see,” said Mark Peifer, a cell and developmental biologist at the University of North Carolina.

They resemble what scientists call viroids, which are infectious loops of RNA known for their effects on plants.

Obelisks share certain traits with these plant pathogens, yet they appear in human-associated bacteria.

According to Matthew Sullivan, an integrative biologist at Ohio State University, the health implications for humans remain unclear.

Understanding RNA — the basics

RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is a vital molecule that plays several important roles in all living cells. Think of it as the messenger that helps turn the genetic instructions stored in DNA into the proteins that build and repair your body.

Unlike DNA, which usually forms a double helix, RNA is typically single-stranded and can fold into different shapes to perform various functions.

There are different types of RNA, such as messenger RNA (mRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) which is a key component of ribosomes, the cell’s protein factories.

But RNA isn’t just about making proteins — it also helps regulate how genes are expressed and can even act as a catalyst in certain chemical reactions.

For example, some RNA molecules can turn genes on or off, controlling what proteins are made and when. This regulation is crucial for everything from development to responding to changes in your environment.

Strange RNA loops

Viruses often have protective shells made of proteins. Obelisks seem to lack that familiar coat. Instead, they carry RNA instructions around in tiny loops.

Unlike standard viruses, they do not appear to encode protein shells. These differences suggest that life’s definitions might need some rethinking.

Obelisks throughout human bodies

It is not just a single type of obelisk. Thousands of unique varieties have turned up when scientists comb through genetic datasets.

Discoveries have emerged from multiple locations around the world, indicating that these intruders are not rare oddities tucked away in one place.

Not only are these obelisks found far and wide, they also appear in different parts of the human body. They have cropped up in bacteria from the mouth and in those dwelling in the intestinal tract.

The genetic signatures hint that distinct types prefer particular regions. This suggests an intricate relationship with our internal ecosystems, though it is too soon to say what they are doing there.

Evolutionary puzzles

Their unusual nature stirs questions about how viruses, viroids, and these newcomers might be related.

A persistent puzzle has always been whether today’s viruses originated from simpler RNA forms or if they started out more complex and shed traits over time.

Entities like obelisks add color to these debates, leaving scientists wondering how ancient these forms might be and how they took shape during the planet’s biological history.

Categorizing human obelisks

Obelisks do not slide neatly into existing categories. They are not standard viruses, not classic bacteria, and not exactly viroids either.

Their discovery hints that we may be missing entire classes of RNA-based life that challenge current textbooks. This complicates efforts to catalog and understand the full range of microbial life.

This investigation involved scanning colossal gene catalogs derived from human-associated microbes. Researchers used new computational tools to spot circular RNA molecules.

These approaches required careful filtering to ensure what they found was not just random noise. The effort paid off, revealing a strange world that had gone unnoticed.

A fresh perspective

“This is one of the most exciting parts of being in this field right now,” said Simon Roux, a computational biologist at the DOE Joint Genome Institute at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

These sentiments reflect a general feeling among experts who are sifting through molecular data and finding surprises.

The study that introduced obelisks was posted on January 21st on bioRxiv, sparking interest among scientists who study microbial communities.

Still so many unknowns

While researchers piece together the story of obelisks, the potential impact on humans remains uncertain. They know these RNA circles live inside bacterial cells that, in turn, inhabit our bodies.

If these entities influence bacterial behavior, they could, by extension, shape aspects of our own biology. Nobody can say yet what the long-term implications will be.

What’s next for human obelisks?

The human body is more than organs and tissues; it is a crowded universe of tiny creatures, many of them strangers we have not fully met before.

Obelisks may be just one example of what can happen when scientists look at genetic data in new ways. There could be more discoveries ahead, each one forcing us to adjust how we describe life and its building blocks.

Until then, researchers continue to watch, learn, and puzzle over these miniature visitors that have managed to hide in plain sight.

The full study was published in bioRxiv and Royal Society Open Science.

Current research on circular RNA:

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