耐药菌们，缴械投降吧~
Scientists to Bacteria: Resistance Is Futile
By taking advantage of evolutionary principles, researchers may have found a way to outwit some pathogens that ordinarily become resistant to antibiotics.
利用生物进化的法则，研究人员或许已发现了一种“智胜”耐药菌的方法。
撰文/播音 韦特•吉布斯（Wayt Gibbs）
If you want to see evolution at work, visit a hospital. Inside a sick patient, antibiotics wipe out infectious bacteria by the millions. But germs are always mutating. A few adapt to resist the drug, so they survive—and spread. Such antibiotic-resistant bacteria infect two million Americans every year; they kill 23,000. In this arms race between medicine and evolution, evolution is winning.
想知道进化发生的真实过程？去医院瞧瞧吧：抗生素在虚弱的病人体内横扫万千细菌，但病菌总会突变。那些突变出抗药性的细菌存活下来，并在机体中扩散。美国每年平均有两百万人感染抗药细菌，23000人因此死亡。在药物与进化的战争中，进化占了上风。
But could we turn evolution against bacteria?
不过，我们是否可以让进化倒戈，反过来制服细菌呢？
It turns out that when bacteria mutate to become resistant to one antibiotic, they often become more vulnerable to a different drug. So maybe after a jab with the left, a roundhouse to the right will deliver a knockout blow.
事实证明，当细菌对一种药物产生抗性，却会对另一种不同的药物更加敏感。所以，也许当细菌碉堡将“枪口”转到左边，它的右翼防御能力就会大大削弱。
To test this idea, researchers in Denmark dosed batches of E. coli with 23 different antibiotics, and waited for resistance to evolve. In three-quarters of the cases, the mutant germs became more susceptible to a second drug.
为了验证这个想法，丹麦科学家用23种不同抗生素处理了一批细菌，等待它们进化出抗药性。其中75%的细菌在突变之后，表现得对另一种药物更加敏感。
The work appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine. [Lejla Imamovic and Morten O. A. Sommer, Use of Collateral Sensitivity Networks to Design Drug Cycling Protocols That Avoid Resistance Development]
这项研究成果发表在了《科学转化医学期刊》上。
One particular combination of widely used antibiotics—gentamicin, then cefuroxime, then gentamicin again, and so on—looks like it could hold the bugs at bay indefinitely.
把使用广泛的抗生素组合起来——先上庆大霉素，再来头孢呋新，然后又用庆大霉素，以此往复，或许能将细菌永远挡在人类的防线之外。
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