研究人员在人类鼻子发现新抗生素

New Antibiotic¹ Found in Human Noses 研究人员在人类鼻子发现新抗生素

The search for new drugs to fight infections has led to a discovery in an unlikely place — in people’s noses.

What researchers found in noses is a compound called lugdunin. It fights a human bacterium² responsible for the “superbug” infection known as MRSA.

MRSA is short for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It is considered a “superbug” because it resists many antibiotic drugs. The result is many people die from the infection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are 80-thousand cases every year in the United States, and 10-thousand people die from MRSA.

The journal Nature Microbiology published a report about the discovery of lugdunin last month. The research team reported that the compound, produced by another bacterium, has been effective against the “superbug.”

The Staphylococcus aureus bacterium is commonly known as staph. Many people carry the staph harmlessly in their bodies, in addition to billions of other microorganisms. But it is a different story if this bacterium gets into a person’s blood. S. aureus can quickly spread throughout the body with a possibly deadly infection.

One place to find staph is in the nose. But the researchers found that 70 percent of the population does not carry S. aureus.

Kim Lewis directs the Antimicrobial Discovery Center at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. He wrote a commentary³ about the discovery in Nature Microbiology.

“So if you have lugdunin in your nose, chances are you are not going to be carrying staph aureus. So that was the initial⁴ finding of that study.”

Just like animals in the wild, bacteria in our bodies compete for survival⁵. The bacterium Staphylococcus lugdunensis fights off S. aureus.

But it gets even more interesting. Scientists found that about one third of the population has S. aureus in their nose. But almost no one with the S. lugdunensis bacterium had any sign of the possibly harmful staph infection. A few people had neither bacterium in their noses.

That raises the possibility that there are other bacteria that can defeat staph. And that could mean there are other antibiotic possibilities that researchers have not yet identified.

Lewis says there is a simple reason why researchers are looking high and low for new antibacterial drugs.

“We want to stay alive. That’s the short answer to that question. Pathogens have been acquiring resistance and that has been spreading. And now pathogens are gaining the upper hand. So we need to get back in the game and figure out other ways to discover new antibiotics⁷.”

He notes that antibiotics, many of which are still in use today, were discovered during the early to middle of the 20th century. It is a period known as the Golden Age of Antibiotics. These drugs were made from compounds found in soil, a good place to find microorganisms. So that is where Lewis’ Antimicrobial Discovery Center comes in.

“Only one percent of soil microorganisms are cultivable. So the rest, the 99 (percent) are called the microbial Dark Matter. So, we are going after the microbial Dark Matter.”

Lewis helped create a new method to look for microorganisms that can be made into antibiotics.

Last year, Lewis and other researchers discovered the drug teixobactin. It is an antibiotic that kills a number of bacterium, including Staphylococcus aureus, by destroying their cell walls.

More traditional antibiotics attack bacterial⁶ proteins. But over time, the microbes can develop mutations -- they change and find ways to resist the drugs. Their ability to change makes traditional antibiotics less effective.

But when researchers attacked the cell walls, they found no resistance to antibiotics in the animals they studied.

This new research means the human body itself might be the source of the new drugs to keep us healthy.

Words in This Story

antibiotic – n. a drug used to kill harmful bacteria or infection

bacterium – n. any one of a group of small living things that often cause disease

pathogen – n. something, like bacteria, that causes disease

microorganism – n. an extremely small living thing that can only be seen with a microscope

cultivable – adj. relating to something that can be grown

 

mutation⁸ – n. a basic and significant change

1 antibiotic   

adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素

参考例句：

• The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
• Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。

2 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

3 commentary   

n.评论，评注；实况广播报导，现场口头评述

参考例句：

• He is giving the commentary on the basketball game.他正在对篮球赛作评论。
• His running commentary on the football match was excellent.他对这次足球赛所作的实况报道十分精彩。

4 initial   

adj.最初的，开始的，词首的；n.首字母，姓名的开头字母；vt.标注姓名的首字母于

参考例句：

• After she'd overcome her initial shyness,she became very friendly.她克服了起初的羞怯之后，变得十分友善。
• The experiments have given initial results eventually.那些试验总算初见成效了。

5 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。

6 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

7 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

8 mutation   

n.变化，变异，转变

参考例句：

• People who have this mutation need less sleep than others.有这种突变的人需要的睡眠比其他人少。
• So far the discussion has centered entirely around mutation in the strict sense.到目前为止，严格来讲，讨论完全集中于围绕突变问题上。