科学家发现抵御病毒新方法――提高自身免疫抵御病毒，可行！

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路透社华盛顿报道，科学家已发现一种通过提高自身免疫力来抵御病毒的新方法。《自然》杂志周三发表的一篇论文称，蒙特利尔麦基尔大学的Mauro Costa-Mattioli所领导的一项研究认为小鼠试验结果可能会为人类带来抗病毒药新希望。

研究人员将小鼠体内两种抑制干扰素（一种蛋白，是细胞抵御病毒的第一道防线）表达的基因进行灭活。所以该类小鼠产生大量的干扰素，对病毒复制产生抑制作用。Costa-Mattioli研究小组称，该方法使小鼠及其细胞对流感病毒及很多其他病毒产生抵抗力。而且增加干扰素的表达似乎对小鼠没有任何不良影响。虽然，目前尚无法对人类进行基因灭活，但科学家称，希望通过药物影响这两种基因来达到人类抵御病毒的作用。而Costa-Mattioli对模拟遗传药理作用充满希望，并认为这将会是一个重大进步。

目前从流感到艾滋病，大部分常见病都存在病毒感染情况，而且很难治疗。病毒侵入活细胞后，利用其再生机制维持并复制自身。而干扰素可以抑制病毒的这种繁殖过程。其中一位研究人员，麦基尔大学Howard Hughes医学研究所的一位国际学者Nahum Sonenberg称，人们已经对可能出现的新病毒蔓延（如禽流感）担忧多年。如果现在能找到一种对抗流感的新方法，益处是无穷的。研究人员称，该方法有可能抵御很多病毒性疾病。而Costa-Mattioli希望在目前的基础上，该方法也可以抵抗像Ebola等其他病毒。Costa-Mattioli认为该方法会抵御一些或者大部分病毒。

known as \"knocking out\" genes
\"基因敲除
Scientists see promise in new way to fight viruses

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have discovered a promising new method to fight a range of diseases by boosting the body's natural defenses against viruses.

Mauro Costa-Mattioli of McGill University in Montreal, who helped lead the research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, expressed hope that the results achieved in mice might lead to new antiviral drugs for people.

The researchers inactivated two genes in mice that repress production of interferon, a protein that serves as a cell's first line of defense against viruses. The mice produced much higher levels of interferon, which had the effect of preventing the viruses from reproducing.

The technique made the mice and their cells resistant to infection by the influenza virus and a handful of other viruses, Costa-Mattioli's team said. The mice did not appear to experience any negative consequences from the augmented interferon production.

The process of inactivating genes -- known as \"knocking out\" genes -- cannot currently be done in people, but the scientists said they hope that drugs can be designed to affect the two genes in order to protect people from viral infection.

\"Hopefully we will mimic the results we got genetically with pharmacology,\" Costa-Mattioli said in a telephone interview. \"I think it's going to be an important step forward.\"

Viral infections are among the most common diseases, ranging from influenza to AIDS, and can be very difficult to fight.

Viruses enter living cells and exploit their reproductive machinery to sustain and replicate themselves. Interferon suppresses this viral propagation.

\"eople have been worried for years about potential new viral pandemics, such as avian influenzas,\" Nahum Sonenberg, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute international scholar at McGill who worked on the study, said in a statement. \"If we might now have the means to develop a new therapy to fight flu, the potential is huge.\"

The researchers said the method holds the potential to combat a range of viral diseases.

\"We hope that we will also be able to stop other viruses like Ebola and others, based on what we have so far,\" Costa-Mattioli said. \"I think it's going to block a few of them or a majority of them, but I cannot promise. I would be very naive to say we've saved the world.\"

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1336910420080213