Christina Warinner: Tracking ancient diseases using ... plaque

翻译人员: Ying Ding 校对人员: Ng Nicole

Have you ever wondered

你是否曾经好奇过

what is inside your dental plaque?

你的牙垢里有些什么成分？

Probably not, but people like me do.

估计没有吧，但像我这样的人 却会思考这个问题。

I'm an archeological geneticist

我是个考古遗传学家，

at the Center for Evolutionary Medicine

在苏黎世大学的

at the University of Zurich,

进化医药中心工作。

and I study the origins and evolution of human health and disease

我通过研究远古人类的

by conducting genetic research

骨骼和干尸的基因，

on the skeletal and mummified remains of ancient humans.

来研究人类健康和疾病的 根源以及演化。

And through this work, I hope to better understand

通过这项工作，我希望能更好地理解

the evolutionary vulnerabilities of our bodies,

人类身体的进化脆弱性，

so that we can improve

以便我们在将来能够改善

and better manage our health in the future.

和更好地管理我们的身体健康。

There are different ways to approach evolutionary medicine,

研究进化医药有不同的方法。

and one way is to extract human DNA

其中一种是从远古人类的骨头上

from ancient bones.

提取DNA，

And from these extracts,

从这些提取物当中，

we can reconstruct the human genome at different points in time

我们可以重建在 不同时间点的人类基因组，

and look for changes that might be related to adaptations,

并寻找可能与适应环境、风险因素和

risk factors and inherited diseases.

遗传疾病相关的变化。

But this is only one half of the story.

但这只是故事的一半。

The most important health challenges today

当今最重大的健康挑战

are not caused by simple mutations in our genome,

并不是由人类基因组中的 一些简单突变造成的，

but rather result from a complex and dynamic interplay

而是源于遗传变异、饮食、 微生物、寄生虫

between genetic variation,

和我们的免疫反应之间的

diet, microbes and parasites

一种复杂，动态的

and our immune response.

相互作用。

All of these diseases

所有这些疾病都有

have a strong evolutionary component

一个很强的进化成分

that directly relates to the fact

与一个事实直接相关，

that we live today in a very different environment

即我们如今生活在一个 与我们的身体发生进化时

than the ones in which our bodies evolved.

截然不同的环境中。

And in order to understand these diseases,

为了理解这些疾病，

we need to move past studies of the human genome alone

我们需要带着过去 对人类基因组的研究一起，

and towards a more holistic approach

向一个更加整体的方向前进，

to human health in the past.

来研究过去的人类健康状况。

But there are a lot of challenges for this.

但是我们面临诸多挑战。

And first of all, what do we even study?

首先，我们的研究对象是什么？

Skeletons are ubiquitous; they're found all over the place.

骨骼随处可见，到处都可以找到，

But of course, all of the soft tissue has decomposed,

但是所有的软体组织都腐坏了，

and the skeleton itself

而骨骼本身所携带的

has limited health information.

健康信息是很有限的。

Mummies are a great source of information,

干尸是一个很好的信息来源，

except that they're really geographically limited

可是干尸出现的地域范围很狭小，

and limited in time as well.

时间范围也很短。

Coprolites are fossilized human feces,

粪化石是人类排泄物的化石，

and they're actually extremely interesting.

实际上，它们很有意思，

You can learn a lot about ancient diet and intestinal disease,

你可以从中了解很多 古代饮食和肠道疾病的信息，

but they are very rare.

但它们很稀少。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So to address this problem,

所以为了解决这个问题，

I put together a team of international researchers

我组织了一队国际研究学者，

in Switzerland, Denmark and the U.K.

他们来自瑞士，丹麦和英国，

to study a very poorly studied, little known material

来研究一种从各地的人 身上都可以找到的，

that's found on people everywhere.

我们却所知甚少的材料。

It's a type of fossilized dental plaque

它是一种牙垢化石。

that is called officially dental calculus.

官方说法是dental calculus（牙垢）。

Many of you may know it by the term tartar.

牙垢也叫牙石，

It's what the dentist cleans off your teeth

就是每次你去看牙的时候

every time that you go in for a visit.

牙医从你的牙齿中清除的东西。

And in a typical dentistry visit,

每次看牙

you may have about 15 to 30 milligrams removed.

你可能会被清除15到30毫克的牙垢。

But in ancient times before tooth brushing,

但是在古代，在有刷牙行为之前，

up to 600 milligrams might have built up on the teeth

人的一生中在牙齿上可能会积累

over a lifetime.

将近600毫克的牙垢。

And what's really important about dental calculus

牙垢之所以重要的原因是

is that it fossilizes just like the rest of the skeleton,

它就像其他骨骼一样可以变成化石。

it's abundant in quantity before the present day

它数量丰富，从古至今都随处可见，

and it's ubiquitous worldwide.

几乎在全球

We find it in every population around the world at all time periods

每个人口中都能找到牙垢。

going back tens of thousands of years.

其时间段可追溯到数万年以前。

And we even find it in neanderthals and animals.

我们甚至在尼安德特人和 动物身上也找到了牙垢。

And so previous studies

之前的研究

had only focused on microscopy.

仅仅关注了显微学。

They'd looked at dental calculus under a microscope,

人们在显微镜下观察牙垢，

and what they had found was things like pollen

发现了花粉和

and plant starches,

植物淀粉，

and they'd found muscle cells from animal meats

他们在动物的肉和细菌中

and bacteria.

发现了肌细胞。

And so what my team of researchers, what we wanted to do,

所以，我的研究小组的计划是，

is say, can we apply

是否能应用

genetic and proteomic technology

遗传和蛋白质组学技术，

to go after DNA and proteins,

来跟踪DNA和蛋白质。

and from this can we get better taxonomic resolution

从这一点出发，我们是否能够 得到更好的生物分类学解决方案

to really understand what's going on?

来真正理解目前的状况。

And what we found

我们发现了

位于鼻腔通道和嘴巴里的

is that we can find many commensal and pathogenic bacteria

that inhabited the nasal passages and mouth.

很多共生体和病原细菌。

We also have found immune proteins

我们也找到了关于

related to infection and inflammation

感染和炎症的免疫蛋白，

and proteins and DNA related to diet.

以及与饮食有关的蛋白质和DNA。

But what was surprising to us, and also quite exciting,

但是令我们感到奇怪又兴奋的是，

is we also found bacteria

我们也发现了

that normally inhabit upper respiratory systems.

通常位于上呼吸道系统的细菌，

So it gives us virtual access to the lungs,

所以它给了我们接触肺部的虚拟途径，

which is where many important diseases reside.

而肺正是感染很多重要疾病的部位。

And we also found bacteria

我们也找到了

that normally inhabit the gut.

通常位于肠道的细菌。

And so we can also now virtually gain access

所以我们现在也可以接触到

to this even more distant organ system

这个隔得更远的器官系统，

that, from the skeleton alone,

而相对骨骼本身来说，

has long decomposed.

这个系统早就腐化了。

And so by applying ancient DNA sequencing

因此，通过对古代牙垢

and protein mass spectrometry technologies

应用DNA测序

to ancient dental calculus,

和蛋白质谱技术，

we can generate immense quantities of data

我们可以获得大量的数据，

that then we can use to begin to reconstruct a detailed picture

并利用这些数据来开始重建

of the dynamic interplay

千万年前的饮食，

between diet, infection and immunity

感染和免疫之间

thousands of years ago.

富有活力的相互作用。

So what started out as an idea,

那么起初的想法

is now being implemented

现在已经被付诸实施，

to churn out millions of sequences

我们得到了数百万的序列

that we can use to investigate

来调查人类

the long-term evolutionary history of human health and disease,

健康和疾病的长期进化史，

right down to the genetic code of individual pathogens.

一直到个体病原体的遗传密码。

And from this information

从这个信息中，

we can learn about how pathogens evolve

我们可以学到病原体是如何进化的，

and also why they continue to make us sick.

以及为什么它们能够一直让人生病。

And I hope I have convinced you

我希望我已经让你们

of the value of dental calculus.

相信了牙垢的价值。

And as a final parting thought,

最后，我想要

on behalf of future archeologists,

代表未来的考古学家，

I would like to ask you to please think twice

请求你们在回家刷牙之前

before you go home and brush your teeth.

三思而后行。

(Applause)

（鼓掌）

Thank you.

（谢谢）

(Applause)

（鼓掌）