Episode Transcript
Announcer: Examining the latest research and telling you about the latest breakthroughs, the Science and Research Show is on The Scope.
Interviewer: Ebola outbreaks have increased in frequency in recent years, culminating in the alarming epidemic that we face today. My guests, Dr. Michael Kay, professor of biochemistry at the University of Utah, and Dr. Debra Eckert在《大发娱乐》杂志上报道了一种针对埃博拉病毒的通用药物目标，可以防止未来的爆发.
You found a drug target for potential treatments against Ebola. 你的目标比你所知道的其他正在开发的目标有什么优势?
Dr. Eckert: 大发娱乐所做的是观察病毒表面蛋白质上的一个特定区域它在所有已知的病毒株和物种中都是保守的. 大发娱乐的药物目标应该能够用于筛选，以确定能够对抗任何埃博拉病毒爆发的药物. The virus in the current outbreak would be susceptible to such drugs, and future outbreaks, even if it was a different species.
Interviewer: I'm going to ask the question that's on everyone's mind. 你的新研究发现有可能对当前的埃博拉危机有所大发娱乐吗?
Dr. Kay: We're focused on the long term, 而且这次爆发的可能性不会是独一无二的，这将是未来持续存在的问题. Given how slow drug development processes are, 从一个目标发展到一种可用的治疗方法需要太多的时间，在目前的疫情中没有真正的价值.
大发娱乐从长远的角度来看，有一种制剂可以储存，并准备好应对各种埃博拉病毒株, 而不是为每一种不同的菌株储备大量不同的治疗方法. We think this is something that will be more workable long term, more economical, 并允许在新出现的流行病中需要药物的人更快速地获得药物，而不必确切地确定所涉及的菌株.
Interviewer: Is there an impetus for creating a universal drug target as you've done? Do we know anything about how quickly the Ebola virus mutates?
Dr. Kay: 目前的疫情给了大发娱乐大量的信息，这是大发娱乐以前没有的, because there haven't been that many who had Ebola before. The early data is that the virus mutates at a somewhat surprisingly high rate. The virus is changing during this current outbreak.
Dr. Eckert: 值得注意的是，大发娱乐已经查看了可用的序列数据，大发娱乐的地区在目前的疫情中没有发生变化.
Interviewer: What are the next steps toward creating a treatment that utilizes this target?
Dr. Eckert: 下一步是利用这个靶标筛选抑制剂，阻止埃博拉病毒进入细胞. 大发娱乐已经开始与大发娱乐的开发伙伴Navigen合作开发屏幕. We do have some preliminary results. Also, 大发娱乐将邀请科学界使用这个药物靶点来筛选其他类型的分子. Essentially, 在筛查中发现的任何具有这一通用靶标的药物都应该对多种埃博拉病毒有效.
Interviewer: 你认为假设的时间尺度会从屏幕上转移到实际的治疗上吗?
Dr. Kay: With Ebola, you can't do clinical trials in the traditional sense. 例如，你不能让一组病人服用安慰剂或药物. 这种病毒并不常见，所以在任何时候都很难找到感染这种病毒的病人.
对于这些非常严重的疾病，有一个替代的过程，你不能做传统的临床试验. It's called the animal rule. 这个想法是，你可以证明药物是安全的，然后用动物模型来证明它在最能模仿人类情况的模型中是有效的. That's all you can do. Then, you have to use it in the field in a crisis.
理论上，这只需要大约三年的时间，而不是传统的十年.
Interviewer: 也许大发娱乐应该倒回去谈谈你针对的这个机制是什么.
Dr. Kay: The region that we've identified we call the N-trimer. It is a trimeric coiled coil, 三个螺旋片段结合在一起，在埃博拉病毒进入细胞并与细胞融合以及将其基因组传递给细胞的能力中起着非常重要的作用. 这个过程是病毒生命周期的早期阶段也是大发娱乐试图阻止病毒进入细胞的过程. This machinery is extremely highly conserved. Importantly, 它可以与病毒的其余部分分开制造，因此非常方便用作药物靶点.
Interviewer: Do you know the state of other treatments that are in development right now?
Dr. Kay: 在当前疫情的背景下，人们正在谈论一些处于最新发展阶段的治疗方法. 最重要的一种是单克隆抗体的混合物, and this is called ZMapp. You may have heard about this in the news. 在目前的疫情中，有几名患者接受了这种药物的治疗. 因为患者人数太少，所以很难判断这种抗体混合物是否成功.
在猴子身上有一些令人印象深刻的数据表明这种药物效果非常好，即使是在很晚的阶段，当动物已经有明显的症状时. 这样的数据在这个领域创造了很多令人兴奋的东西，这种方法很可能在人类身上成功.
Unfortunately, there's a supply crunch right now. Antibodies are difficult and expensive to make. It takes a long time to build up a supply. 这家公司的抗体已经完全用完了，正在竞相生产更多的抗体，希望能参与到目前的疫情中来.
值得指出的是，尽管这种疗法很有希望，但它只针对一种埃博拉病毒, so it's not expected to work on other strains.
Interviewer: What are your next steps?
Dr. Kay: Now that we have this target in hand and we've validated its use, 大发娱乐正在顺利地筛选镜像d肽针对这一目标. Our next stages are to optimize the promising hits that we already have, then work with our collaborators who have the ability to work with live Ebola, something that we can not do.
In particular, the U.S. Army has a wonderful infectious disease lab called USAMRID. We would send samples to them for testing in either cell based assays, which are relatively simple to do, to see if we can keep Ebola out of a cell, then ultimately animal based assays. They have a specialized lab for working with live Ebola, 在进行人体试验之前，这是检验这种方法是否有效的决定性测试.
Announcer: Interesting, informative, and all in the name of better health. This is The Scope Health Sciences Radio.