評(píng)論
打印
Science & technology
科技板塊
Immunology
免疫學(xué)
Fed by the hand that should bite it
已攻擊自己的東西為食
A bacterium that tricks the immune system into nurturing it
一種欺騙免疫系統(tǒng)培養(yǎng)它的細(xì)菌
The immune system has many weapons with which to counter hostile incomers.
免疫系統(tǒng)有許多武器可以用來(lái)對(duì)抗敵對(duì)的入侵者。
But what works against one may not be effective against another.
但對(duì)一種病毒起作用的方法對(duì)另一種可能不起作用。
An interloper can take advantage of this by misdirecting the system into thinking it is fighting an enemy that it is not.
入侵者可以利用這一點(diǎn)，誤導(dǎo)系統(tǒng)，讓它們認(rèn)為自己正在與另一個(gè)敵人作戰(zhàn)，而實(shí)際上并非如此。
This buys time for that interloper to become entrenched.
這為闖入者扎根贏得了時(shí)間。
That is sneaky.
這太狡猾了。
Sneakier still, though, is the approach just discovered by Ruslan Medzhitov of Yale University.
不過(guò)，耶魯大學(xué)的魯斯蘭·梅德日托夫剛剛發(fā)現(xiàn)的方法更“狡猾”。
As he and his colleagues report in Immunity, they have found a bacterium that induces its host’s immune system to release compounds on which it can then feed.
正如他和他的同事在《免疫》雜志上報(bào)道的那樣，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種細(xì)菌，它可以誘導(dǎo)宿主的免疫系統(tǒng)釋放出化合物，并以此為食。
Mammalian immune systems have two modes of attack.
哺乳動(dòng)物的免疫系統(tǒng)有兩種攻擊模式。
Type-1 is used against bacteria and viruses; type-2 against multicellular parasites such as worms.
類(lèi)型1用于對(duì)抗細(xì)菌和病毒；類(lèi)型2用于對(duì)抗多細(xì)胞寄生蟲(chóng)，如蠕蟲(chóng)。
Some invading bacteria, however, provoke a type-2 response when type-1 would be appropriate.
然而，一些入侵的細(xì)菌會(huì)在適合類(lèi)型1的攻擊模式下引發(fā)類(lèi)型2的反應(yīng)。
Dr Medzhitov decided to take a closer look.
梅德日托夫博士決定更進(jìn)一步觀察。
He and his colleagues studied the behaviour of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium which causes stubborn infections in people with cystic fibrosis.
他和他的同事研究了銅綠假單胞菌的行為，這是一種導(dǎo)致囊性纖維癥患者頑固感染的細(xì)菌。
They suspected it was leading the body to mount an ineffective type-2 response against it and wanted to know how it was doing this.
他們懷疑這是導(dǎo)致身體對(duì)它進(jìn)行無(wú)效的2型反應(yīng)，并想知道它是如何做到這一點(diǎn)的。
To explore the matter, they grew laboratory cultures of the sorts of epithelial cells that line human airways and monitored their gene-expression profiles when exposed to LasB, a toxic enzyme produced by the bacterium.
為了探究這一問(wèn)題，他們?cè)趯?shí)驗(yàn)室培養(yǎng)了人體呼吸道內(nèi)的各種上皮細(xì)胞，并監(jiān)測(cè)了它們?cè)诮佑|LasB時(shí)的基因表達(dá)譜，LasB是一種由細(xì)菌產(chǎn)生的有毒酶。
They found that LasB activated signalling pathways which drove the epithelial cells to make a protein called amphiregulin.
他們發(fā)現(xiàn)LasB激活了信號(hào)通路，驅(qū)動(dòng)上皮細(xì)胞產(chǎn)生一種名為雙調(diào)節(jié)蛋白的蛋白質(zhì)。
This forms the basis of a thick mucus that excels at ensnaring parasitic worms.
這形成了厚厚的粘液的基礎(chǔ)，這種粘液擅長(zhǎng)誘捕寄生蟲(chóng)。
It also recruits immune cells called eosinophils, which are adept at attacking multicellular parasites.
它還影響了被稱(chēng)為嗜酸性粒細(xì)胞的免疫細(xì)胞，這種細(xì)胞擅長(zhǎng)攻擊多細(xì)胞寄生蟲(chóng)。
