科学美国人60秒 SSS 大便移植者的关键要素（在线收听）

Fecal Transplanters Fish Out Key Ingredient

These days, antibiotics are no silver bullet. In fact, if you get them in the hospital, you may end up with an additional infection. Like the bug Clostridium difficile, or C. diff—which infects more than 300,000 Americans a year and kills some 14,000.C. diff flourishes in the post-antibiotic, microbe-free landscape of your gut. But there is a way to stop it—a fecal transplant. That cocktail of microbes from a healthy person's gut can rein in a C. diff outbreak. The question is not: Eewww? It’s: What are the transplant's active ingredients? You can find more 60-Second science on chinavoa.com.

这些天来，抗生素不是银色子弹(杀手锏)，如果在医院拿到这些抗生素，也许你还有会受到另外的感染。就像艰难梭状芽胞杆菌——在美国一年就会感染30多万人，夺取1万4千人的生命。艰难梭状芽胞杆菌就是在使用抗生素后在肠道里繁殖生长。但是有种方法能阻止它的繁殖生长——通过大便移植。大便移植是将健康者的粪便导入肠道受感染的患者以抑制患者体内有害细菌滋生的治疗措施。问题不是：恶心吗?问题是移植的有效成分是什么?

Well, one of them appears to be a bacterium calledClostridium scindens. Because in past studies, people and mice that harbored C. scindens were protected against a full-blownC. diff infection. So researchers dosed mice with the good guy, C. scindens, after a bout of antibiotics. And the treatment did indeed ward off C. diff, compared to a cocktail of other microbes, or nothing at all.

其中一个问题是一种叫scindens梭菌的细菌。因为在过去的研究中，体内含有scindens梭菌的人们和老鼠就能够抵御艰难梭状芽孢杆菌的感染。所以研究者给小老鼠用过抗生素后，用scindens梭菌试验。与其它混合的微生物细菌相比，这种治疗确实能够抵挡C艰难梭状芽孢杆菌。

C. scindensmakes a living by breaking down bile, the researchers say, and it's those secondary products that seem to inhibit C. diff. The findings are in the journal Nature. [Charlie G. Buffie et al: Precision microbiome reconstitution restores bile acid mediated resistance to Clostridium difficile]

研究员说scindens梭菌通过分解胆汁，正是这种二次产物能够抑制艰难梭状芽孢杆菌。这一研究发现在《自然》杂志上发表。

This work could lead to more targeted probiotic treatments. But study author Eric Pamer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center says it's worth remembering that when it comes to microbes, the sum is often greater than its parts. "In some ways I would say this is far more complex than an orchestra, in that there are many more interdependencies, and many of which we just don't understand yet, but that are starting to be illuminated by ongoing work." Now, at least, we know one of the featured performers.

这项工作能够产生更多有针对性的益生菌治疗。纽约史隆凯特灵纪念医院的研究的报告者艾瑞克·帕玛说：“提到微生物的时候，需要记住的是总和总是要大于各个部分。某种程度上说，这要比拨弄管弦乐器要更复杂，因为它们彼此交织关联，而且有很多微生物我们还没办法理解呢。但是接下来的工作会慢慢的解释这些未知。”至少现在，我们知道了一些微生物的性质特点。