美国国家公共电台 NPR Probiotic Bacteria Could Protect Newborns From Deadly Infection

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Now some good news, especially for babies around the world. Scientists in the U.S. and India have found an inexpensive treatment for a common infection. It could save hundreds of thousands of newborns each year. The treatment comes from a surprising source - bacteria found in fermented¹ foods. As NPR's Michaeleen Doucleff reports, the bacteria helped babies in a clinical trial so much, researchers stopped the trial early.

MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF, BYLINE²: The top killer³ of newborns around the world is a deadly blood infection called sepsis. Dr. Panaki Panigrahi at the University of Nebraska Medical Center says sepsis can strike babies just a few days after they're born. And it happens fast.

PANAKI PANIGRAHI: That is the problem. They die so quickly.

DOUCLEFF: The baby seems fine, healthy. And then all of a sudden, it stops crying, stops breastfeeding. A few hours later, the baby is really sick.

PANIGRAHI: And by the time the mother has a chance to bring the baby to either the hospital or any kind of a health care facility, the baby dies.

DOUCLEFF: Each year, sepsis kills more than 600,000 newborns. That's more than 1,600 babies every day. Panigrahi says when you're at a hospital in India, it's overwhelming how many babies suffer from sepsis.

PANIGRAHI: You see so many are dying, or all of them are dying - kind of breaks your heart.

DOUCLEFF: So Panigrahi has dedicated⁴ his career to finding a way to prevent sepsis, to stop it before it happens. And now he has huge results.

PANIGRAHI: It has taken me about 20 years to get to this point.

DOUCLEFF: Panigrahi and his team report in the journal Nature that common bacteria can prevent sepsis in newborns - turns out the critters were sitting in our kitchen the whole time. The bacteria are called Lactobacillus plantarum, and they're used to make kimchi, pickles⁵ and fermented radishes. So you could literally⁶ grow this treatment in your kitchen.

PANIGRAHI: It can be manufactured in a very simple setting. And because of that, it is cheap.

DOUCLEFF: He estimates it costs about a dollar per baby. When babies eat the probiotic for about a week, it reduces the risk of death by 40 percent - from 9 percent to 5 percent. But that's not all. The probiotic also warded⁷ off several other infections, including those in the lungs.

PANIGRAHI: So that was a big surprise because we didn't think that it is going to work in a distant organ like lungs.

DOUCLEFF: OK. Now, if you think about what's going on here, it almost sounds counterintuitive. Sepsis is a bacterial⁸ infection. So the researchers are preventing a bacterial infection with bacteria. How is that possible? Well, Dr. Pacsal Lavoie studies babies' immune systems at BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver. He says these good bacteria sort of push out bad bacteria in the baby's gut⁹. They also jump-start the immune system.

PASCAL LAVOIE: They would also promote maturation of the immune system of the baby in a healthier way.

DOUCLEFF: And the bacteria produce a compound that strengthens the wall of the intestine¹⁰.

LAVOIE: It acts as a barrier or a wall that prevent the bad bacteria from going through.

DOUCLEFF: So these good bacteria are actually pretty powerful.

LAVOIE: Yes. And in a way, it's much more powerful than any drugs.

DOUCLEFF: But like drugs, the probiotic needs to be fully¹¹ tested before it's used around the world. Lavoie says that means testing it in more places and on babies at highest risk for sepsis - those born prematurely¹² or underweight. Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF TIM ATLAS SONG, "COMPROMISED")

1 fermented   

v.（使）发酵( ferment的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）激动；骚动；骚扰

参考例句：

• When wine is fermented, it gives off gas. 酒发酵时发出气泡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His speeches fermented trouble among the workers. 他的演讲在工人中引起骚动。 来自辞典例句

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

4 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

5 pickles   

n.腌菜( pickle的名词复数 )；处于困境；遇到麻烦；菜酱

参考例句：

• Most people eat pickles at breakfast. 大多数人早餐吃腌菜。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I want their pickles and wines, and that.' 我要他们的泡菜、美酒和所有其他东西。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 warded   

有锁孔的，有钥匙榫槽的

参考例句：

• The soldiers warded over the city. 士兵们守护着这座城市。
• He warded off a danger. 他避开了危险。

8 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。

9 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

10 intestine   

adj.内部的；国内的；n.肠

参考例句：

• This vitamin is absorbed through the walls of the small intestine.这种维生素通过小肠壁被吸收。
• The service productivity is the function,including external efficiency,intestine efficiency and capacity efficiency.服务业的生产率是一个包含有外部效率、内部效率和能力效率的函数。

11 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

12 prematurely   

adv.过早地，贸然地

参考例句：

• She was born prematurely with poorly developed lungs. 她早产，肺部未发育健全。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His hair was prematurely white, but his busy eyebrows were still jet-black. 他的头发已经白了，不过两道浓眉还是乌黑乌黑的。 来自辞典例句