驚爆！耐抗生素細(xì)菌的弱點(diǎn)被發(fā)現(xiàn)了

　　出版日期：2014年6月23日

　　自然期刊的新研究揭示了包裹著耐藥性細(xì)菌細(xì)胞的防御屏障的唯一致命弱點(diǎn)。

　　The findings pave the way for a new wave of drugs that kill superbugs by bringing down their defensive walls rather than attacking the bacteria itself. It means that in future, bacteria may not develop drug-resistance at all.

　　這項(xiàng)研究為新一波的藥物鋪平道路，通過瓦解它們的防御墻而不是攻擊細(xì)菌本身殺死超級細(xì)菌。這意味著，在未來，細(xì)菌根本不會出現(xiàn)耐藥性。

　　Outer membrane

　　外膜

　　Researchers investigated a class of bacteria called 'Gram-negative bacteria' which is particularly resistant to antibiotics because of its cells' impermeable lipid-based outer membrane. This outer membrane acts as a defensive barrier against attacks from the human immune system and antibiotic drugs. It allows the pathogenic bacteria to survive, but removing this barrier causes the bacteria to become more vulnerable and die. Until now little has been known about exactly how the defensive barrier is built. The new findings reveal how bacterial cells transport the barrier building blocks (called lipopolysaccharides) to the outer surface.

　　研究人員研究一種稱為“革蘭氏陰性菌”的細(xì)菌，這種細(xì)菌尤其能對抗生素產(chǎn)生抗性，因?yàn)樗兄|(zhì)的不透水的細(xì)胞外膜。這種外膜作為對抗來自于人類免疫系統(tǒng)和和抗生素藥物攻擊的防御屏障。它可以讓致病細(xì)菌生存，但是，消除這一障礙會導(dǎo)致細(xì)菌變得更加脆弱和死亡。到現(xiàn)在為止，對于防御屏障如何建成的確切信息仍然甚少。這些新的發(fā)現(xiàn)揭示了細(xì)菌細(xì)胞如何將屏障構(gòu)建塊(稱為脂多糖)運(yùn)輸?shù)郊?xì)胞外表面。

　　Current antibiotics are useless

　　當(dāng)前的抗生素是無效的

　　Group leader Prof Changjiang Dong, from UEA's Norwich Medical School, said: "We have identified the path and gate used by the bacteria to transport the barrier building blocks to the outer surface. Importantly, we have demonstrated that the bacteria would die if the gate is locked. This is really important because drug-resistant bacteria is a global health problem. Many current antibiotics are becoming useless, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths each year".

　　研究組組長、東英吉利大學(xué)的諾維奇醫(yī)學(xué)院董長江教授說：“我們已經(jīng)確定了細(xì)菌細(xì)胞將屏障構(gòu)建塊運(yùn)輸?shù)郊?xì)胞外表面所使用的通路和閘門。重要的是，我們已經(jīng)證明，如果閘門被鎖住，這個細(xì)菌一定會死?！?“這是非常重要的，因?yàn)槟退幮约?xì)菌是一個全球性的健康問題。目前許多抗生素都變得一無是處，每年造成數(shù)百萬人死亡?！?/font>