从糖中提取的“改变游戏规则”的分子可以杀死感染病毒

从糖中提取的“改变游戏规则”的分子可以杀死感染病毒

Researchers have developed a sweet new antiviral agent derived from sugar that destroys viruses on contact. It’s still early days for the research, but the "game-changing" molecule holds some potential to fight against viral outbreaks.

研究人员已经开发出一种新型的甜味抗病毒药物，这种药物是从糖中提取的，可以在接触时杀死病毒。虽然这项研究还处于早期阶段，但这种“改变游戏规则”的分子在对抗病毒爆发方面具有一定的潜力。

Reported in the journal Science Advances, researchers engineered the new molecule from cyclodextrins, a family of natural glucose derivatives that hold broad-spectrum antiviral properties and a bunch of other handy characteristics.

发表在《科学进展》(Science Advances)杂志上的研究报告称，研究人员利用环糊精设计了这种新分子。这是一类天然的葡萄糖衍生物，具有广谱抗病毒特性和其他一些便利的特性。

Viruses are a real pain to kill, especially once they’ve set up camp in a host. Most antivirals actually just slow down their growth. Many true “virucidal” substances, such as bleach, can be effective at destroying viruses on contact but are equally capable of killing human cells too.

病毒是一种很难杀死的东西，特别是当它们在宿主体内安营扎寨的时候。大多数抗病毒药实际上只是减缓它们的生长。许多真正的“杀毒”物质，如漂白剂，可以有效地杀死接触的病毒，但同样也能杀死人类细胞。

Tom Hale

This new molecule, however, is able to overcome this problem. Experiments carried out in a petri dish and live mice showed that the agent was able to kill HIV, herpes simplex virus, respiratory syncytial virus, dengue, and Zika. On top of that, viruses appeared to find it difficult to gain resistance to the molecule, a common problem with many current antiviral treatments. The sugar-derived molecule is also biocompatible and shows no signs of being toxic to living tissue.

然而，这种新分子能够克服这个问题。在有盖培养皿和活老鼠中进行的实验表明，该制剂能够杀死艾滋病病毒、单纯疱疹病毒、呼吸道合胞体病毒、登革热和寨卡病毒。最重要的是，病毒似乎发现很难获得对这种分子的耐药性，这是当前许多抗病毒治疗的一个常见问题。这种糖源性分子也具有生物相容性，对活组织没有毒性。

“We have successfully engineered a new molecule, which is a modified sugar that shows broad-spectrum antiviral properties,” Dr Samuel Jones from the University of Manchester and Dr Valeria Cagno, a researcher at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, said in a joint statement.

曼彻斯特大学的Samuel Jones博士和UNIGE医学院的Valeria Cagno博士在一份联合声明中说:“我们已经成功地设计了一种新的分子，它是一种经过修饰的糖，具有广谱抗病毒特性。”

“The antiviral mechanism is virucidal meaning that viruses struggle to develop resistance. As this is a new type of antiviral and one of the first to ever show broad-spectrum efficacy, it has potential to be a game-changer in treating viral infections.”

“抗病毒机制是抗病毒的，这意味着病毒很难产生耐药性。由于这是一种新型的抗病毒药物，而且是最早显示出广谱疗效的药物之一，它有可能成为治疗病毒感染的游戏规则改变者。”

As noted, much more research is needed before we fully understand how effective this molecule is in real-world situations. However, so far, it’s looking promising. The molecule has been patented and a company has been established to get this treatment out of the lab and onto chemists’ shelves. The researchers say they can easily imagine using the molecule in treatments such as topic creams, ointments, or nasal sprays for viral infections.

如前所述，在我们完全了解这种分子在现实世界中的有效性之前，还需要更多的研究。然而，到目前为止，它看起来很有希望。这种分子已经获得了专利，并成立了一家公司，将这种治疗方法从实验室推广到化学家的货架上。研究人员表示，他们可以很容易地想象在治疗中使用这种分子，比如面霜、软膏或用于治疗病毒感染的鼻喷剂。

There are also higher hopes that it could be used in the battle against new emerging viral threats.

人们也更希望它能被用于对抗新出现的病毒威胁。

“We developed a powerful molecule able to work against very different viruses, therefore, we think this could be game-changing also for emerging infections,” added Professor Caroline Tapparel from UNIGE Faculty of Medicine and Professor Francesco Stellacci from EPFL, two senior authors of the study.

“我们开发了一种强大的分子，能够对抗非常不同的病毒，因此，我们认为这可能也会改变新出现的感染，”来自威热医学院的Caroline Tapparel教授和来自EPFL的Francesco Stellacci教授补充说，他们是这项研究的两位资深作者。