"特洛伊木馬"抗體策略有望剋制埃博拉病毒感染

Scientists have found a hidden weak spot shared by all five known types of the deadly Ebola virus and successfully targeted it with two antibodies that blocked its ability to invade human cells.

日前，科學家發現了五種已知的致死性埃博拉病毒所共有的一個隱藏弱點，併成功地利用兩種抗體來封鎖其入侵人體細胞的能力。

In early stage laboratory experiments published in the journal Science, the researchers developed a "Trojan horse" strategy that allows engineered antibodies to hitch a ride on Ebola to where the virus is Most vulnerable before hitting it.

早期實驗室試驗階段的進展刊登在了《科學》雜誌上。研究人員發明了一種“特洛伊木馬”策略，讓經過改造的抗體在埃博拉病毒最脆弱的時候“搭順風車”並予以打擊。

"The success in co-opting the virus itself to dispatch a lethal weapon marks a turning point in development of smart therapeutics against infectious diseases," said M. Javad Aman, a scientist and president at the U.S. biotech firm Integrated BioTherapeutics who worked on the team.

美國生物技術公司“生物治療”的科學家兼總裁、在團隊中工作的科學家M·賈維德·亞曼表示：“成功讓病毒本身變成致命武器，標誌着傳染病智能治療學發展的一個轉折點。”

Although years of testing lie ahead before any fully approved treatment might be developed for Ebola patients, Aman said similar strategies could also be devised against several other viral and bacterial pathogens.

雖然前面還要經過數年的試驗，針對埃博拉病毒患者的療法也要完全得到批准，但亞曼表示，相似的策略經過改造，可以用來治療其他幾種病毒和細菌性病原體感染。

Ebola is an extremely deadly and contagious disease for which there are currently no regulator-approved vaccines or treatments.

埃博拉是一種極度致命的傳染病，現在沒有正式批准的疫苗或者療法。

A vast outbreak of the Zaire strain of the virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever, killed more than 11,000 people and infected around 29,000 in West Africa in 2014-15.

該病毒的扎伊爾分支能夠引起出血熱，於2014年至2015年在非洲西部大爆發，造成超過11000人死亡，約29000人感染。

Monoclonal antibodies, which bind to and neutralize specific pathogens and toxins, have emerged as the most promising treatments for Ebola.

與特定病原體和毒素綁定並削弱其毒性的單克隆抗體，是最有希望治癒埃博拉病毒的療法。

But a critical problem is that most antibody therapies — including the most promising experimental therapy, ZMapp — target only one specific Ebola virus.

但是大多數抗體療法有一個嚴重的問題--包括最有希望的實驗性療法ZMapp--那就是隻能針對某種特定的埃博拉病毒。

In this work, the research team found a way around this by targeting a weak spot — in the so-called lysosome of the cell — to where antibodies could hitch a ride on Ebola and deliver a punch that blocked the virus' exit and ability to replicate.

在這項研究中，研究團隊圍繞這一點，通過針對病毒的弱點發現了一種方法--在細胞溶酶體中--“搭順風車”並予以狠狠一擊，這樣就能封鎖病毒的退路並抑制其再生的能力。

The strategy could eventually be developed for use in a range of other viruses, the scientists said, including cousins of Ebola such as Marburg, and other viral diseases such as dengue or Lassa.

科學家們表示，這種方法最終可以發展爲其他一系列病毒的療法，包括埃博拉病毒的兄弟馬堡病毒以及其他病毒性疾病，如登革熱和拉沙熱病。

"It's impossible to predict where the next Ebola virus outbreak will occur or which virus will cause it," said Jon Lai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, who co-led the work.

團隊的共同負責人、紐約阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦醫學院的黎世豪表示：“我們還沒有辦法預測下一次埃博拉病毒在哪裏爆發、是由什麼引發的。”

"We hope that further testing in nonhuman primates will establish our antibodies as safe and effective for treating those exposed to any Ebola virus."

“我們希望我們的抗體未來在非人靈長類動物身上的試驗，對治療那些感染任何一種埃博拉病毒的人來說是安全有效的。”