Kary Mullis' next-gen cure for killer infection

Prevodilac: Nenad Bozinovic Lektor: Ivana Korom

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

Bilo je to otprilike pre četiri, pet godina,

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

sedeo sam na bini u Filadelfiji,

with a bag similar to this.

sa torbom sličnom ovoj.

And I was pulling a molecule out of this bag.

I vadio sam molekul iz torbe.

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

I govorio sam, vi ne znate ovaj molekul 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 telo mrzi,

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

zato što smo mi imuni na njega. Ovo je molekul alpha-gal epitope.

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.

je razlog zašto ne možete da presadite svinjski srčani zalistak u čoveka.

Actually our body doesn't hate these.

Ustvari, naše telo ne mrzi ove molekule.

Our body loves these. It eats them.

Naše telo ih obožava. Ono ih proždire.

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

Ćelije našeg imunog sistema su uvek gladne.

And if an antibody is stuck to one of these things

I ako je antitelo zakačeno za jedan ovakav molekul

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

na ćeliji, to znači da je vreme 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 ovaj smešni molekul,

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

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

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

I uvek ćemo imati tu imunu reakciju.

because all the people who tried to transplant heart valves

I svi ljudi koji su pokušali da presade srčani zalistak

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

su otkrili da ne mogu da se otarase te imune reakcije.

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

Zašto onda ne probamo da iskoristimo to?

What if I could stick this molecule,

Šta ako bih uzeo ovaj molekul,

slap it onto a bacteria

i zakačio ga 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

Štaviše, 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 reagovao.

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

Na primer, zamislite da vas

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

dok vozite kola, zaustavi policajac u Los Anđelesu.

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

I da vam policajac ubaci kesu marihuane u prtljažnik,

and then charges you for possession of marijuana.

i privede vas zbog posedovanja marihuane.

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

To bi bio veoma brz i efikasan način da se uklone ljudi sa ulica.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

So you can take a bacteria

Slično tome, uzmite neku bakteriju,

that really doesn't make these things at all,

koja ne proizvodi ovaj molekul uopšte,

and if you could clamp these on it really well

i ako bismo mogli da zakačimo ove molekule za bakteriju,

you have it taken off the street.

mi bismo ih uklonili sa 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 efikasan način da to uradimo.

Our antibiotics are running out.

Ponestaje nam antibiotika.

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

Ustvari, izgleda da ceo svet polako nestaje,

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

tako da verovatno neće ni biti bitno za 50 godina,

streptococcus and stuff like that will be rampant --

što su Streptokoke i slične stvari toliko nabujale,

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

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

(Laughter)

(smeh)

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

treba nešto da uradimo sa ovim bakterijama.

So I started working with this thing,

Tako sam i počeo da radim na ovome,

with a bunch of collaborators.

sa svojim saradnicima.

And trying to attach this to things that were

Pokušavajući da zakačim ovaj molekul za stvari koje onda

themselves attached to certain specific target zones,

mogu da se zakače za određene zone onih bakterija,

bacteria that we don't like.

koje i inače ne volimo.

And I feel now like George Bush.

I sada se osećam kao Džordž Buš.

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.

Tako da možda ja 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 da kažem da ovaj naš metod ustvari radi.

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

I metod ubija bakterije tj. imuni sistem ih jede.

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

Ovaj molekul možemo da zakačimo i to onaj mali zeleni trougao gore

sort of symbolizing this right now.

pokušava da simbolizuje.

You can stick this to something called a DNA aptamer.

Ovo možete da zakačite za nešto što se zove DNK aptamer,

And that DNA aptamer will attach specifically

a taj DNK aptamer će se zakačiti

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 da nađete neki detalj na bakteriji koju ne volite,

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

npr. stafilokoku, 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 reaguje 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 ovaj molekul zakačen za njega,

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

koji će znati kako da nađe stafilo-bakteriju u vašem organizmu,

and will alert your immune system to go after it.

i upozoriti vaš imuni sistem da je napadne.

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

Evo šta se desilo. Vidite ovu liniju na samom vrhu,

with the little dots?

sa tačkicama?

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 naučnici iz Teksasa,

at Brooks Air Base, with anthrax.

u Bruks avio bazi, sa antraksom.

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

I oni su takođe bili tretirani lekom 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 sistem na njega.

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

Primećujete da su svi miševi preživeli, 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 živeli 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 videli šta im se desilo.

Why did they not die?

I zašto nisu umirali?

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

Pa nisu umirali jer više nisu imali antraks.

So we did it. Okay?

Znači uspeli smo, zar ne?

(Applause)

(Aplauz)

Mission accomplished!

Misija je završena!

(Applause)

(Aplauz)