Silver Shows Its Mettle against Bacteria

Silver Shows Its Mettle against Bacteria
银可以抗菌
If you’re plagued by werewolves, reach for the silver. And more mundane health problems may also respond well to the silver solution. Because a new study shows that microbes exposed to a pinch of the precious metal become more vulnerable to antibiotic attack. The research is in the journalScience Translational Medicine. [Jose Ruben Morones-Ramirez et al., Silver Enhances Antibiotic Activity against Gram-Negative Bacteria]
如果你受狼人困扰，求助于银吧。很多常见的健康问题也有可能用银来解决。因为一项新的研究表明暴露在贵金属下微生物对抗生素攻击非常脆弱。这项研究发表在journalScience Translational Medicine. [Jose Ruben Morones-Ramirez et al., Silver Enhances Antibiotic Activity against Gram-Negative Bacteria].
Silver’s long been a medical treatment. Hippocrates himself applied it to open wounds. But its use as a cure for contagion fell by the wayside with the discovery of penicillin, and the source of its bug-blasting abilities remained a mystery. Until now.
银长久以来就被用于医学治疗。医药之父希波克拉底就把它用于治疗暴露的伤口。但是自青霉素发现以来，它被用于辅助感染治疗，以及它的抗菌效果的原理一直是一个谜。直到现在。
Researchers treated E. coli bacteria with small amounts of silver. They found that the metal messes with the bugs’ proteins, wreaking havoc on their metabolism. It also generates reactive chemicals that attack the microbes from within. All this weakens the bacteria’s defenses, which allows other, more conventional antibiotics to slip in and do their work. Even killing microbes that were formerly antibiotic resistant.
研究人员用少量银来治疗 E. coli 细菌感染。他们发现金属破坏了细菌的蛋白质，严重破坏了其新陈代谢。它还引发了其内部攻击微生物的化学反应。所有这些都减弱了细菌的防卫，使得常规的抗生素攻入并产生杀菌效果。甚至之前有抗性的细菌都会被杀死。
Mice with fatal infections were also saved with a silver and antibiotic combo, and at doses that did the sick rodents no harm. This silver was delivered by injection. For werewolves, the preferred silver delivery system is still the bullet.
严重感染的老鼠也通过银和抗生素的组合而得到救治，使用剂量上没有对啮齿目动物造成损害。银是通过注射来送达患处的。对于狼人来说，首选的银输送系统仍然是子弹。