A strain that emerged during the latest epidemic is able to enter human cells more easily—which means it’s more infectious, too. Christopher Intagliata reports.
据克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔（Christopher Intagliata）报道，在最近流行病期间出现的毒株能够更容易地进入人类细胞——这意味着它也更具有传染性。
撰文/播音：克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔
翻译：杨枭
审校：丁可含
Ebola outbreaks before the most recent one have been fairly contained: geographically limited, and just a couple hundred cases. The latest outbreak, though, which started in late 2013 and lasted more than two years, was entirely different. “There were almost 30,000 cases.” Jeremy Luban, a virologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. “You could argue this was the first actual epidemic.”
在最近的一次疫情爆发之前，埃博拉病毒一定程度上得到了控制：地域限制，且只有几百例。然而，最近的这次疫情爆发完全不同，它从2013年年底开始，持续了两年多。马萨诸塞大学医学院的病毒学家杰里米·卢班（Jeremy Luban）说：“这次疫情有近三万个病例。你可以说这才是一次真正的疫情。”
Luban and his colleagues studied publicly available data on the evolutionary “family tree” of the Ebola virus during the latest outbreak—how the strains mutated and changed over time. “And one in particular caught our attention. It arose early in the epidemic, and it’s the only form of the virus that persisted beyond that point.”
卢班和他的同事研究了在最近爆发期间埃博拉病毒进化“家谱”的公开可用数据——毒株如何随时间突变和改变。“有一株特别引起了我们的注意。它在疫情早期产生，而且是唯一未变的毒株。”
This mutant strain was armed with an alteration in the protein it uses to enter cells. What Luban’s team found was that the modified protein actually made the strain more infectious to the cells of humans and other primates—but not to other mammals. The study is in the journal Cell. [William E. Diehl et al., Ebola Virus Glycoprotein with Increased Infectivity Dominated the 2013–2016 Epidemic]
这种突变株所携带的用于进入细胞的蛋白质发生了突变。卢班团队发现这种改良后的蛋白事实上可以使该病毒更容易感染人类和灵长类动物细胞，但对于其它哺乳动物无效。这项研究发表在了期刊《细胞》上。
Luban says it’s unclear whether this increased infectivity helped drive the outbreak to epidemic proportions. Or whether the length and size of the epidemic simply allowed for more virulent strains like this one to appear. Still, he says, studying these strains helps us understand how the virus infects—and replicates. “That may help us treat infections in the future, to develop therapies, or to develop vaccines to block an infection.” In other words: know thy enemy.
卢班说，目前尚不清楚这种增加的传染性是否有助于将疫情推动到流行病的规模。或者，正是这次流行病的持久与大规模才使得更多像这样的毒株出现。尽管如此，他说，研究这些病毒株有助于我们了解病毒是如何感染和复制。“这可能有助于我们在将来治疗传染病，研制疗法，或开发疫苗以防止传染。”换句话说：了解你的敌人。
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