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【medical-news】研究发现免疫系统调节网络
Studies Reveal an Immune System Regulator
研究发现免疫系统调节网络
By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: April 27, 2007
Scientists working independently in Cambridge, England, and Cambridge, Mass., have discovered an unexpected regulatory network that affects the entire immune system.
在英国剑桥大学和马塞诸塞州剑桥大学独立工作的科学家们意外发现了一个能作用于整个免疫系统的调节网络。
The regulatory network may provide new clues to both the working of the body’s immune defenses and the generation of a class of cancers known as lymphomas, which include Hodgkin’s disease.
该调节网络有可能为人们提供关于机体免疫防御的机制和一系列包括霍奇金氏病在内的淋巴瘤的新线索。
The network depends on a genetic element known as a micro-RNA. RNA is the versatile chemical cousin of DNA; the micro snippets are too short to make genes but can interfere with the much longer messenger RNAs, which are transcribed from the DNA and used to direct the synthesis of proteins.
该网络依靠的是遗传元件小RNA。RNA与DNA关系密切，功能繁多；由于这些微片断过短而无法构成基因，却可以和长得多的信使RNA相互作用，信使RNA由DNA翻译而来，并指导蛋白质的合成。
A micro-RNA called miR-155, one of about 500 that have been discovered in mammals in the last 10 years, was known to be more abundant in active B cells, the antibody-making cells of the immune system, as well as in lymphomas.
近10年来发现的约500个小RNA中，有一个名为miR-155的小RNA在活化的B细胞和淋巴瘤中具有更高的丰度。
Two groups of scientists, one led by Allan Bradley and Martin Turner in England and the other by Klaus Rajewsky at Harvard Medical School, had the idea of creating strains of mice from which the gene that generates the micro-RNA had been deleted. Their reports were published today in the journal Science.
由英国的Allan Brandley和Martin Turner领导的，和哈佛医学院Klaus Pajewsky领导的两大科学家团队建立了一个敲除产生小RNA基因的小鼠系。他们的报道今天发表在《科学》杂志上。
Dr. Bradley’s group found that the genetically engineered mice did not respond well to vaccination and failed to develop immunity. Without miR-155, they were unable to generate important cytokines, the cell-to-cell signaling proteins that coordinate the various components of the immune system.
Bradley医生的团队发现，经过基因处理的小鼠对接种没有反应，无法产生免疫。没有miR-155，它们无法产生重要的细胞因子，细胞因子是细胞和细胞间的信号蛋白，可以协调免疫系统各个部分。
Dr. Rajewsky’s team found that without miR-155, the immune system was no longer able to select antibody-making cells of the right specificity to attack invaders.
Rajewsky医生的团队发现没有miR-155，免疫系统就没法正确选择特异的产生抗体的细胞来攻击侵入者。
Dr. Rajewsky said the involvement of miR-155 in the immune system was a “completely new development” that is “leading to a lot of rethinking.” Up to now, most immunologists have assumed the immune system was governed at the level of transcription factors, the master regulator proteins that control how genes are turned off and on.
Rajewsky医生说miR-155参与免疫系统是“全新的发展”，将“引起巨大反思”。到目前为止，许多免疫学家都以为免疫系统是在转录水平进行调控的，转录因子是控制基因的总开关。
“This has dominated everyone’s thinking for a generation,” said Dr. Turner, of the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, England. But the findings showed the importance of a different level of control.
“这种观点影响了一代人的思考，”英国剑桥Babraham学院的Turner 医生说。但是这项发现显示了另一个重要的调控水平。
“Knocking out the micro-RNA is affecting a lot of different cell types that need to cooperate with each other,” Dr. Turner said.
“敲除小RNA会影响很多相互作用的不同细胞，”Turner医生说。
The work on miR-155 opened a window into the understanding of the immune system, but it is too early for immunologists to figure out any practical consequences.
关于mi-155的工作为了解免疫系统打开了一扇窗，但是现在就让免疫学家转化成应用成果还为时过早。
编译：
研究发现免疫系统调节网络
NICHOLAS WADE
在英国剑桥大学和马塞诸塞州剑桥大学独立工作的科学家们意外发现了一个能作用于整个免疫系统的调节网络。该调节网络有可能为人们提供关于机体免疫防御的机制和一系列包括霍奇金氏病在内的淋巴瘤的新线索。该网络依靠的是遗传元件小RNA。RNA与DNA关系密切，功能繁多；由于这些微片断过短而无法构成基因，却可以和长得多的信使RNA相互作用，信使RNA由DNA翻译而来，并指导蛋白质的合成。近10年来发现的约500个小RNA中，有一个名为miR-155的小RNA在活化的B细胞和淋巴瘤中具有更高的丰度。由英国的Allan Brandley和Martin Turner领导的，和哈佛医学院Klaus Pajewsky领导的两大科学家团队建立了一个敲除产生小RNA基因的小鼠系。他们的报道今天发表在《科学》杂志上。Bradley医生的团队发现，经过基因处理的小鼠对接种没有反应，无法产生免疫。没有miR-155，它们无法产生重要的细胞因子，细胞因子是细胞和细胞间的信号蛋白，可以协调免疫系统各个部分。Rajewsky医生的团队发现没有miR-155，免疫系统就没法正确选择特异的产生抗体的细胞来攻击侵入者。Rajewsky医生说miR-155参与免疫系统是“全新的发展”，将“引起巨大反思”。到目前为止，许多免疫学家都以为免疫系统是在转录水平进行调控的，转录因子是控制基因的总开关。 “这种观点影响了一代人的思考，”英国剑桥Babraham学院的Turner 医生说。但是这项发现显示了另一个重要的调控水平。 “敲除小RNA会影响很多相互作用的不同细胞，”Turner医生说。关于mi-155的工作为了解免疫系统打开了一扇窗，但是现在就让免疫学家转化成应用成果还为时过早。 [标签:content1][标签:content2]
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-02-19 17:11
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