Cambridge research team working towards vaccine against COVID-19
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Cambridge research team working towards vaccine against COVID-19
一种疫苗研制的策略是，瞄准病毒结构中对细胞结合至关重要的那些区域，同时避免可能使情况变得更糟的那些部分。
A vaccine strategy needs to be laser specific, targeting those domains of the virus’s structure that are absolutely critical for docking with a cell, while avoiding the parts that could make things worse.
--Prof. Jonathan Heeney
现在新型冠状病毒疫苗的研制成为了一场竞赛。乔纳森·希尼教授解释了为什么需要采取谨慎的方法，以及他的团队如何使用针对流感和埃博拉病毒开发的新技术来对付新的感染。
The race is on to find a vaccine against the new COVID-19 coronavirus. Professor Jonathan Heeney explains why a cautious approach is needed and how his team is using new technology developed for influenza and Ebola viruses to target the new infection.
很难想象两个月前，几乎没有人听说过这种新型冠状病毒。现在，这种导致新冠肺炎的病毒已经蔓延到地球的每一个角落。世界卫生组织已正式宣布此次疫情为大流行。
It is hard now to conceive that two months ago, few people had heard of the new coronavirus. Now, the virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, has spread to every corner of the globe. The World Health Organization has officially declared the outbreak a pandemic.
随着数十万人，甚至是数百万人受到感染的威胁，并且医疗系统不堪重负，一种保护个人并减缓疾病传播的疫苗竞赛正在展开。然而，剑桥大学病毒动物学实验室主任、疫苗研发人员之一乔纳森•希尼(Jonathan Heeney)教授表示，冠状病毒给疫苗研发人员带来了特别的挑战。
With the threat of hundreds of thousands – possibly millions – of people being infected and healthcare systems becoming overwhelmed, the race is on to develop a vaccine that will protect individuals and slow the spread of the disease. But Professor Jonathan Heeney, Head of the Laboratory of Viral Zoonotics at the University of Cambridge, and one of the people working on a vaccine, says that coronaviruses present a particular challenge to vaccine developers.
冠状病毒是根据它们的外观命名的：它们呈球形，表面有刺突蛋白。病毒利用这些刺来附着和入侵我们体内的细胞。一旦进入体内，病毒利用细胞自身的机制来帮助自身复制并在体内传播，从而导致疾病并使其继续传播。
Coronaviruses are named after their appearance: they are spherical objects, on the surface of which sit ‘spike’ proteins. The virus uses these spikes to attach to and invade cells in our body. Once inside, the virus uses the cell’s own machinery to help itself replicate and spread throughout the body, causing disease and allowing it to transmit onwards.
传统上，科学家会开发疫苗，让身体产生抗体，识别并阻断这些刺突。然而，希尼表示，这种策略可能会因为一种被称为“抗体诱导增强”或“疫苗诱导增强”的现象失效。
Traditionally, scientists would develop vaccines that programme the body to produce antibodies that recognise and block these spikes. But this strategy can misfire with coronaviruses due to a phenomenon known as ‘antibody-induced enhancement’ or ‘vaccine-induced enhancement’, says Heeney.
“如果制造抗体来对抗刺突，它们最终会与之结合，帮助病毒入侵重要的免疫细胞，即单核-巨噬细胞。这些细胞非但没有消灭病毒，反而可能被病毒重新编程，加剧免疫反应，使疾病变得比原本更严重。”
“If you make antibodies against the spike, they can end up binding to it and helping the virus invade important immune cells known as monocyte-macrophages. Rather than destroying the virus, these cells can then end up being reprogrammed by the viruses, exacerbating the immune response and making the disease much, much worse than it would otherwise be.”
尽管这种现象众所周知，但是它仍然会减慢疫苗开发。他还说：“在进行人体试验之前，研究人员要确信他们的候选疫苗是安全的，它不会在不经意间使病情恶化。”
This phenomenon is well known, says Heeney, but it could stillslow down development of a vaccine. “Researchers will want to be confident that their vaccine candidates are safe – that they don’t inadvertently make the disease worse – before they are tested in humans.”
面对这种局面，希尼教授的团队会采取何种技术，实现疫苗研制的突破？
In the face of this, what technology has Prof. Heeney's team used to make the breakthrough?
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