Kary Mullis' next-gen cure for killer infection

Prevoditelj: Romana Perković Recezent: Bojan Hodap

So it was about four years ago, five years ago,

Bilo je to otprilike prije četiri, pet godina,

I was sitting on a stage in Philadelphia, I think it was,

sjedio sam na bini u Philadelphiji,

with a bag similar to this.

sa torbom sličnom ovoj.

And I was pulling a molecule out of this bag.

I vadio sam molekule iz torbe.

And I was saying, you don't know this molecule really well,

I govorio sam, vi ne znate ovu molekulu dobro,

but your body knows it extremely well.

ali ga vaš organizam zna vrlo dobro.

And I was thinking that your body hated it, at the time,

I tada sam mislio da ga vaše tijelo mrzi,

because we are very immune to this. This is called alpha-gal epitope.

zato što smo mi imuni na njega. Ovo je molekula alpha-gal Epitop.

And the fact that pig heart valves have lots of these on them

I činjenica da svinjski srčani zalistak ima puno ovih molekula,

is the reason that you can't transplant a pig heart valve into a person easily.

razlog je zašto ne možete presaditi svinjski srčani zalistak u čovjeka.

Actually our body doesn't hate these.

Ustvari, naše tijelo ne mrzi ove molekule.

Our body loves these. It eats them.

Naše tijelo ih obožava. Ono ih proždire.

I mean, the cells in our immune system are always hungry.

Stanice našeg imunološkog sustava su uvijek gladne.

And if an antibody is stuck to one of these things

I ako je antitijelo zakačeno za jednu ovakvu molekulu

on the cell, it means "that's food."

na ćeliji, to znači da je vrijeme za večeru.

Now, I was thinking about that and I said, you know, we've got this

I dosta sam razmišljao o tome. Mi imamo

immune response to this ridiculous molecule

imunu reakciju na ovu smiješnu molekulu,

that we don't make, and we see it a lot in other animals and stuff.

koju mi ne proizvodimo, ali ga nalazimo u drugim životinjama i stvarima.

But I said we can't get rid of it,

I uvijek ćemo imati tu imunu reakciju.

because all the people who tried to transplant heart valves

I svi ljudi koji su pokušali presaditi srčani zalistak,

found out you can't get rid of that immunity.

otkrili su da se ne mogu riješiti te imune reakcije.

And I said, why don't you use that?

Zašto onda ne probamo iskoristiti to?

What if I could stick this molecule,

Što ako bih uzeo ovu molekulu,

slap it onto a bacteria

i zakačio ju na bakteriju

that was pathogenic to me, that had just invaded my lungs?

koja je patogena za mene i koja je napala moja pluća.

I mean I could immediately tap into

Štoviše, u tom slučaju

an immune response that was already there,

imunitet bi se stvorio istog trenutka.

where it was not going to take five or six days to develop it --

I ne bi nam trebalo pet ili šest dana da se imunitet razvije,

it was going to immediately attack whatever this thing was on.

nego bi istovremeno organizam reagirao.

It was kind of like the same thing that happens when you,

Na primjer, zamislite da vas dok

like when you're getting stopped for a traffic ticket in L.A.,

vozite auto, zaustavi policajac u Los Angelesu.

and the cop drops a bag of marijuana in the back of your car,

I da vam policajac ubaci vrećicu marihuane u prtljažnik,

and then charges you for possession of marijuana.

i privede vas zbog posjedovanja marihuane.

It's like this very fast, very efficient way to get people off the street.

To bi bio veoma brz i efikasan način uklanjanja ljudi sa ulica.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

So you can take a bacteria

Slično tome, uzmite neku bakteriju,

that really doesn't make these things at all,

koja ne proizvodi ovu molekulu uopće,

and if you could clamp these on it really well

i ako bismo mogli zakačiti ove molekule za bakteriju,

you have it taken off the street.

mi bismo ih uklonili s ulice.

And for certain bacteria

I za određene bakterije

we don't have really efficient ways to do that anymore.

mi ustvari više i nemamo učinkovit način učiniti to.

Our antibiotics are running out.

Ponestaje nam antibiotika.

And, I mean, the world apparently is running out too.

Ustvari, izgleda kako cijeli svijet polako nestaje,

So probably it doesn't matter 50 years from now --

tako da vjerojatno neće ni biti bitno za 50 godina,

streptococcus and stuff like that will be rampant --

što su Streptokoki i slične stvari toliko nabujale,

because we won't be here. But if we are --

jer mi nećemo biti ovdje. Ali ako budemo ...

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

we're going to need something to do with the bacteria.

treba nešto učiniti sa ovim bakterijama.

So I started working with this thing,

Tako sam i počeo raditi na ovome,

with a bunch of collaborators.

sa svojim suradnicima.

And trying to attach this to things that were

Pokušavajući zakačit ovu molekulu

themselves attached to certain specific target zones,

za stvari koje se onda mogu zakačit za određene zone

bacteria that we don't like.

onih bakterija, koje i inače ne volimo.

And I feel now like George Bush.

I sada se osjećam kao George Bush.

It's like "mission accomplished."

Kad je izgovorio''misija je završena'' (u Iraku).

So I might be doing something dumb, just like he was doing at the time.

Možda radim nešto glupo, baš kao što je i on svojevremeno,

But basically what I was talking about there we've now gotten to work.

ali hoću reći kako ovaj naš način ustvari radi.

And it's killing bacteria. It's eating them.

I metoda ubija bakterije tj. imunološki sustav ih jede.

This thing can be stuck, like that little green triangle up there,

Ovu molekulu možemo zakačit i to kao onaj mali zeleni trokut gore

sort of symbolizing this right now.

što ju simbolizira.

You can stick this to something called a DNA aptamer.

To možete zakačit za nešto što se zove DNK aptamer,

And that DNA aptamer will attach specifically

a taj DNK aptamer će se zakačit

to a target that you have selected for it.

za metu koju ste vi odabrali.

So you can find a little feature on a bacterium that you don't like,

Tako možete naći neki detalj na bakteriji koju ne volite,

like Staphylococcus -- I don't like it in particular,

npr. stafilokok, koju ja naročito ne volim,

because it killed a professor friend of mine last year.

jer je ubila mog prijatelja, profesora, prošle godine.

It doesn't respond to antibiotics. So I don't like it.

Ne reagira na antibiotike. Zato je ne volim.

And I'm making an aptamer that will have this attached to it.

I napravio sam aptamer koji će imati ovu molekulu zakačenu za njega.

That will know how to find Staph when it's in your body,

Tako će znati kako pronaći stafilo-bakteriju u vašem organizmu

and will alert your immune system to go after it.

i upozoriti vaš imunološki sustav da je napadne.

Here's what happened. See that line on the very top

Evo što se dogodilo. Vidite ovu liniju na samom vrhu,

with the little dots?

s točkicama?

That's a bunch of mice that had been poisoned

To je gomila miševa koje su otrovali

by our scientist friends down in Texas,

naši prijatelji znanstvenici iz Teksasa,

at Brooks Air Base, with anthrax.

u Brooks avio bazi, s antraksom.

And they had also been treated with a drug that we made

I oni su također bili tretirani lijekom koji smo mi napravili,

that would attack anthrax in particular,

koji specifično napada antraks,

and direct your immune system to it.

i upućuje vaš imuni sustav na njega.

You'll notice they all lived, the ones on the top line --

Primjećujete da su svi miševi preživjeli, ovi gore na vrhu.

that's a 100 percent survival rate.

To je 100 posto stopa preživljavanja.

And they actually lived another 14 days,

Oni su ustvari živjeli još 14 dana

or 28 when we finally killed them,

ili 28, kad smo ih na kraju ubili,

and took them apart and figured out what went wrong.

i otvorili da bi vidjeli što im se dogodilo.

Why did they not die?

I zašto nisu umrli?

And they didn't die because they didn't have anthrax anymore.

Pa nisu umrli jer više nisu imali antraks.

So we did it. Okay?

Znači uspjeli smo, zar ne?

(Applause)

(Pljesak)

Mission accomplished!

Misija je završena!

(Applause)

(Pljesak)