So it was about four years ago, five years ago, I was sitting on a stage in Philadelphia, I think it was, with a bag similar to this. And I was pulling a molecule out of this bag. And I was saying, you don't know this molecule really well, but your body knows it extremely well. And I was thinking that your body hated it, at the time, because we are very immune to this. This is called alpha-gal epitope. And the fact that pig heart valves have lots of these on them is the reason that you can't transplant a pig heart valve into a person easily.
Bilo je to otprilike prije četiri, pet godina, sjedio sam na bini u Philadelphiji, sa torbom sličnom ovoj. I vadio sam molekule iz torbe. I govorio sam, vi ne znate ovu molekulu dobro, ali ga vaš organizam zna vrlo dobro. I tada sam mislio da ga vaše tijelo mrzi, zato što smo mi imuni na njega. Ovo je molekula alpha-gal Epitop. I činjenica da svinjski srčani zalistak ima puno ovih molekula, razlog je zašto ne možete presaditi svinjski srčani zalistak u čovjeka.
Actually our body doesn't hate these. Our body loves these. It eats them. I mean, the cells in our immune system are always hungry. And if an antibody is stuck to one of these things on the cell, it means "that's food." Now, I was thinking about that and I said, you know, we've got this immune response to this ridiculous molecule that we don't make, and we see it a lot in other animals and stuff. But I said we can't get rid of it, because all the people who tried to transplant heart valves found out you can't get rid of that immunity.
Ustvari, naše tijelo ne mrzi ove molekule. Naše tijelo ih obožava. Ono ih proždire. Stanice našeg imunološkog sustava su uvijek gladne. I ako je antitijelo zakačeno za jednu ovakvu molekulu na ćeliji, to znači da je vrijeme za večeru. I dosta sam razmišljao o tome. Mi imamo imunu reakciju na ovu smiješnu molekulu, koju mi ne proizvodimo, ali ga nalazimo u drugim životinjama i stvarima. I uvijek ćemo imati tu imunu reakciju. I svi ljudi koji su pokušali presaditi srčani zalistak, otkrili su da se ne mogu riješiti te imune reakcije.
And I said, why don't you use that? What if I could stick this molecule, slap it onto a bacteria that was pathogenic to me, that had just invaded my lungs? I mean I could immediately tap into an immune response that was already there, where it was not going to take five or six days to develop it -- it was going to immediately attack whatever this thing was on. It was kind of like the same thing that happens when you, like when you're getting stopped for a traffic ticket in L.A., and the cop drops a bag of marijuana in the back of your car, and then charges you for possession of marijuana. It's like this very fast, very efficient way to get people off the street.
Zašto onda ne probamo iskoristiti to? Što ako bih uzeo ovu molekulu, i zakačio ju na bakteriju koja je patogena za mene i koja je napala moja pluća. Štoviše, u tom slučaju imunitet bi se stvorio istog trenutka. I ne bi nam trebalo pet ili šest dana da se imunitet razvije, nego bi istovremeno organizam reagirao. Na primjer, zamislite da vas dok vozite auto, zaustavi policajac u Los Angelesu. I da vam policajac ubaci vrećicu marihuane u prtljažnik, i privede vas zbog posjedovanja marihuane. To bi bio veoma brz i efikasan način uklanjanja ljudi sa ulica.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
So you can take a bacteria that really doesn't make these things at all, and if you could clamp these on it really well you have it taken off the street. And for certain bacteria we don't have really efficient ways to do that anymore. Our antibiotics are running out. And, I mean, the world apparently is running out too. So probably it doesn't matter 50 years from now -- streptococcus and stuff like that will be rampant -- because we won't be here. But if we are -- (Laughter) we're going to need something to do with the bacteria.
Slično tome, uzmite neku bakteriju, koja ne proizvodi ovu molekulu uopće, i ako bismo mogli zakačiti ove molekule za bakteriju, mi bismo ih uklonili s ulice. I za određene bakterije mi ustvari više i nemamo učinkovit način učiniti to. Ponestaje nam antibiotika. Ustvari, izgleda kako cijeli svijet polako nestaje, tako da vjerojatno neće ni biti bitno za 50 godina, što su Streptokoki i slične stvari toliko nabujale, jer mi nećemo biti ovdje. Ali ako budemo ... (Smijeh) treba nešto učiniti sa ovim bakterijama.
So I started working with this thing, with a bunch of collaborators. And trying to attach this to things that were themselves attached to certain specific target zones, bacteria that we don't like. And I feel now like George Bush. It's like "mission accomplished." So I might be doing something dumb, just like he was doing at the time. But basically what I was talking about there we've now gotten to work. And it's killing bacteria. It's eating them.
Tako sam i počeo raditi na ovome, sa svojim suradnicima. Pokušavajući zakačit ovu molekulu za stvari koje se onda mogu zakačit za određene zone onih bakterija, koje i inače ne volimo. I sada se osjećam kao George Bush. Kad je izgovorio''misija je završena'' (u Iraku). Možda radim nešto glupo, baš kao što je i on svojevremeno, ali hoću reći kako ovaj naš način ustvari radi. I metoda ubija bakterije tj. imunološki sustav ih jede.
This thing can be stuck, like that little green triangle up there, sort of symbolizing this right now. You can stick this to something called a DNA aptamer. And that DNA aptamer will attach specifically to a target that you have selected for it. So you can find a little feature on a bacterium that you don't like, like Staphylococcus -- I don't like it in particular, because it killed a professor friend of mine last year. It doesn't respond to antibiotics. So I don't like it. And I'm making an aptamer that will have this attached to it. That will know how to find Staph when it's in your body, and will alert your immune system to go after it.
Ovu molekulu možemo zakačit i to kao onaj mali zeleni trokut gore što ju simbolizira. To možete zakačit za nešto što se zove DNK aptamer, a taj DNK aptamer će se zakačit za metu koju ste vi odabrali. Tako možete naći neki detalj na bakteriji koju ne volite, npr. stafilokok, koju ja naročito ne volim, jer je ubila mog prijatelja, profesora, prošle godine. Ne reagira na antibiotike. Zato je ne volim. I napravio sam aptamer koji će imati ovu molekulu zakačenu za njega. Tako će znati kako pronaći stafilo-bakteriju u vašem organizmu i upozoriti vaš imunološki sustav da je napadne.
Here's what happened. See that line on the very top with the little dots? That's a bunch of mice that had been poisoned by our scientist friends down in Texas, at Brooks Air Base, with anthrax. And they had also been treated with a drug that we made that would attack anthrax in particular, and direct your immune system to it. You'll notice they all lived, the ones on the top line -- that's a 100 percent survival rate. And they actually lived another 14 days, or 28 when we finally killed them, and took them apart and figured out what went wrong. Why did they not die? And they didn't die because they didn't have anthrax anymore. So we did it. Okay?
Evo što se dogodilo. Vidite ovu liniju na samom vrhu, s točkicama? To je gomila miševa koje su otrovali naši prijatelji znanstvenici iz Teksasa, u Brooks avio bazi, s antraksom. I oni su također bili tretirani lijekom koji smo mi napravili, koji specifično napada antraks, i upućuje vaš imuni sustav na njega. Primjećujete da su svi miševi preživjeli, ovi gore na vrhu. To je 100 posto stopa preživljavanja. Oni su ustvari živjeli još 14 dana ili 28, kad smo ih na kraju ubili, i otvorili da bi vidjeli što im se dogodilo. I zašto nisu umrli? Pa nisu umrli jer više nisu imali antraks. Znači uspjeli smo, zar ne?
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Mission accomplished!
Misija je završena!
(Applause)
(Pljesak)