Virus-fighting viperins, part of the human immune system, turn out to have bacterial counterparts that might boost the fight against human disease
抗病毒的viperins (一種干擾素誘導的細胞蛋白，是人類免疫系統的一部分)結果證實具有，可能增強對抗人類疾病的細菌對應物。
By tracking the evolution of what may be our oldest means of fighting off viral infection, a group at the Weizmann Institute of Science has uncovered a gold mine of antiviral substances that may lead to the development of highly effective antiviral drugs.
藉由追蹤可能是咱們擊退病毒感染之最古老方法的演化，一支以色列魏茨曼科學研究所的團隊已經揭露一種，可能導致開發出高效能抗病毒藥物之抗病毒物質的金礦。
These substances are made by virus-fighting enzymes known as viperins, which were previously known to exist only in mammals, and have now been found in bacteria. The molecules produced by the bacterial viperins are currently undergoing testing against human viruses such as the influenza virus and COVID-19. The study was published today in Nature.
此些物質是由，先前已知僅存在於哺乳動物中，現在已經在細菌中發現，被通稱為viperins的抗病毒酵素產生。這些由細菌viperins產生的分子，目前正在接受，針對諸如流感病毒及2019冠狀病毒症(COVID-19：Coronavirus Disease-19)等，人類病毒的測試。該項研究，發表於今天(2020年9月17日)的《自然》期刊。
Studies conducted over the past decade by Prof. Rotem Sorek and his group in the Institute’s Molecular Genetics Department, as well as those by other scientists, have revealed that bacteria have highly sophisticated immune systems, despite their microscopic size.
除了由其他科學家們進行的研究之外，在過去十年間，由魏茨曼科學研究所分子遺傳學系，Rotem Sorek教授及其團隊進行的諸多研究已經揭露，儘管細菌非常細小的尺寸，其具有高度複雜的免疫系統。
In particular, they are equipped to fight off phages – viruses that infect bacteria. These differ from the kind that infect humans in their choice of targets, but they all consist of genetic material – DNA or RNA – that hijacks parts of the host’s replication machinery to make copies of themselves and spread.
特別是，它們具備了擊退噬菌體(感染細菌的病毒)的能力。此些在其選擇目標上，不同於感染人類的種類。不過，它們皆由劫持部分宿主複製系統，來複製自身及傳播的遺傳物質(DNA或RNA)組成。
Sorek has found that some of these bacterial immune responses suggest evolutionary links to our own immune systems, and the present study in his lab shows the strongest evidence yet: They discovered that viperin antiviral enzymes – whose function in the human immune system was understood only two years ago – play a role in the immune system of bacteria.
Sorek已經發現，其中一些細菌的免疫反應暗示了，演化上與咱們免疫系統的關聯性，且目前在其實驗室的研究顯示了，迄今為止最有力的證據。他們發現了，viperin抗病毒的酵素(其在人類免疫系統中的功能，僅兩年前才被瞭解)，在細菌的免疫系統中，扮演一種角色。
圖1. 類似右上角之噬菌體的病毒專門感染細菌 (圖援用自原文)
In humans, viperin belongs to the innate immune system, the oldest part of the immune system in terms of evolution. It is produced when a signaling substance called interferon alerts the immune system to the presence of pathogenic viruses.
在人類中，viperin屬於先天免疫系統，從演化觀點來看，它是免疫系統中，最古老的部分。它是在一種被稱為干擾素的發信號物質，警告免疫系統存在病原性病毒時，被產生的。
The viperin then releases a special molecule that is able to act against a broad range of viruses with one simple rule: The molecule “mimics” nucleotides, bits of genetic material needed to replicate their genomes.
之後，這種viperin釋出一種，能以一種簡單法則，起對抗廣泛病毒之作用的特殊分子：這種分子“模倣”，複製其基因體所需之一些遺傳物質的核苷酸。
But the viperin molecule is fake: It is missing a vital piece that enables the next nucleotide in the growing strand to attach. Once the faux-nucleotide is inserted into the replicating viral genome, replication comes to a halt and the virus dies.
不過，這種viperin分子是仿造的：其缺少在成長股中，使下一個核苷酸能附著的重要片段。一旦這種仿造的核苷酸被嵌入複製的病毒基因體中，複製停止且病毒死亡。
This simplicity and broad action against many different viruses suggested viperins had been around for some time, but could they go back as far as our common ancestors with bacteria?
這種對抗許多不同病毒的簡單性及廣泛作用暗示了，viperins已經存在一段時間。不過，它們可能回溯遠至咱們與細菌的共同祖先嗎？
Led by former postdoctoral fellow Dr. Aude Bernheim in Sorek’s lab, the group used techniques that had been developed in his lab to detect bacterial sequences encoding possible viperins. They then showed that these viperins did, indeed, protect bacteria against phage infection.
由Sorek實驗室前博士後特別研究員，Aude Bernheim博士所領導，該團隊使用了，諸多在其實驗室已經開發來檢測，編碼可能之viperins的細菌序列技術。之後，的確他們證實了此些viperins，確實保護細菌免於噬菌體感染。
“Whereas the human viperin produces a single kind of antiviral molecule, we found that the bacterial ones generate a surprising variety of molecules, each of which can potentially serve as a new antiviral drug,” says Sorek.
Sorek宣稱：「鑒於人類viperin產生單一類型的抗病毒分子，我們發現細菌viperin產生各種令人訝異的分子，其每種分子潛在上，能作為一種新的抗病毒藥物。」
Based on the genetic sequences, Sorek and his team were able to trace the evolutionary history of viperins: “We found that this important component of our own antiviral immune system originated in the bacterial defense against viruses that infect them,” says Sorek.
根據此些遺傳序列，Sorek及其團隊能追溯viperin的演化史。Sorek宣稱：「他們發現，咱們抗病毒免疫系統的重要組成部分，源自細菌對抗感染它們之病毒的防禦物。」
圖2. 細菌中的毒蛇蛋白已經演化來對抗多種病毒 (圖援用自原文)
If the bacterial viperins prove effective against human viruses, Sorek thinks it may pave the way for the discovery of further molecules generated by bacterial immune systems that could be adopted as antiviral drugs for human diseases.
倘若細菌的viperin證實對人類病毒有效。Sorek認為這可能，為發現由細菌免疫系統所產生，可能被採納作為人類疾病之抗病毒藥物的更多分子舖路。
“As we did decades ago with antibiotics – antibacterial substances that were first discovered in fungi and bacteria – we might learn how to identify and adopt the antiviral strategies of organisms that have been fighting infection for hundreds of millions of years.”
「如同咱們數十年前使用抗生素(在真菌及細菌中首度被發現的抗菌物質)那樣，咱們可能獲悉如何確認及採用，一直對抗感染達數億年的生物抗病毒策略。」
The current study was conducted in collaboration with researchers from Pantheon Biosciences, which has licensed the rights through Yeda Research and Development, the technology transfer arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science, to develop anti-viral drugs based on the findings.
當前的研究是與，來自Pantheon Biosciences技術公司之研究人員們合作進行的，Pantheon Biosciences技術公司的研究人員，已經透過魏茲曼科學研究所的技術轉讓機構，業達研究開發公司，獲得了開發抗病毒藥物的權利。
原文網址：https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/bacteria-could-provide-us-next-antivirals
翻譯：許東榮
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