科学美国人60秒:Viruses Hijack the Body's Response to Mosquito Bites

Chances are, you've had the opportunity to study firsthand the swollen, itchy welt left by a mosquito bite. And now—scientists have too.
很有可能，你会有机会研究有关肿胀的第一手资料——被蚊虫叮咬后留下的痒痕。现在，科学家们不得不对其进行研究。

"Well, we haven't studied itching yet in our laboratory studies." Clive McKimmie, an immunologist at the University of Leeds, in England. "What we've shown is the inflammation associated with bites is not good for you as a host, and it gives a virus an advantage."
“我们还从未在实验室研究过痒痕！”英国利兹大学的免疫学家Clive McKimmie说道。“我们已经证明，作为宿主，叮咬诱发的相关炎症有害于你的身体健康。”它为病毒创造了优势。

To understand why, let’s back up. To mosquito spit. "Now I know it's a little disgusting to think about, but when a mosquito bites you, they're spitting out quite a bit of saliva into your skin." That saliva can contain viruses, like zika or chikungunya. And viruses—and the tissue damage from the bite—are a rallying cry for the immune system.
为了解其中原因，让我们回到这儿，蚊子的唾液。我知道现在思考这些有点儿恶心。当蚊子叮咬你时，它们会吐出相当多的唾液到你的皮肤。唾液中可含有病毒，如zike病毒或基孔肯亚病。并且病毒——以及叮咬所导致的组织损伤——对免疫系统而言是一个战斗口号。

McKimmie and his colleagues studied that immune response in mice. And they found that when immune cells show up at the bite the viruses infect them, and turn those immune cells into factories for further virus replication.
McKimmie和他的同事研究了小鼠的免疫反应。并且他们发现，当被蚊虫叮咬时，免疫细胞就会出现，这时病毒就会感染这些免疫细胞，并把这些免疫细胞纳入自己的“工厂”， 进一步复制病毒。

"Your own immune system, which is meant to help your body defend itself against infection, seems to be inadvertently promoting an aspect of a virus infection."
“你自身的免疫系统，其目的在于帮助保护你的身体免受感染，但似乎在不经意间促进了病毒感染的一个方面。”

Overall, the inflammation resulted in 10 times more virus in the mice, compared to being inoculated with the virus without a bite. The study is in the journal Immunity. [Marieke Pingen et al., Host Inflammatory Response to Mosquito Bites Enhances the Severity of Arbovirus Infection]
与被接种病毒、没有被叮咬的小鼠相比，炎症导致的病毒要比其多十倍之多。这项研究发表在《免疫》杂志上。

More viruses means a higher chance they'll infect your organs—and other mosquitoes too. So McKimmie says it might be worth testing a cheap anti-inflammatory—like a topical ibuprofen cream—to see if it cuts virus numbers. "You've got to remember that these infections tend to be present in parts of the world that are economically deprived. And so we can't come up with an expensive new medication, because it's unlikely to be appropriate for that situation."
病毒越多意味着感染你器官的机会就越大。并且其他蚊子也是这样。因此，McKimmie表示测试出一种廉价抗炎药是非常值得的。就像局部布洛芬乳膏——检测它是否能够减少病毒数量。“你要记住，这些感染往往出现在那些经济贫困的世界各地。因此我们不能研制昂贵的新药物，因为这不太可能适应目前的情形。

The real beauty of this topical treatment approach, though—if it works—is its versatility: it zeroes in not on a specific disease, but that one thing they all have in common: the bite.
这种局部治疗方法的真正美妙之处——如果它起作用——在于它的多功能性：它属于专门研究，但不是针对某一种特定的疾病，但是它们都有一个共同点：叮咬。

—Christopher Intagliata
克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔报道。