新發現一種細菌，竟然能幫忙減壓，上班族的福音？

Scientists have isolated a unique molecular pattern that might one day enable a 'stress vaccine' to exist for real – and they found it hidden inside a bacterium that thrives in dirt.

科學家分離出一種獨特的分子模式，將來可能將“壓力疫苗”變成現實，他們發現這種分子隱藏在一種在泥土中大量存在的細菌中。

Mycobacterium vaccae is a non-pathogenic bacterium that lives in soil, and has shown considerable promise in health research; now, a new study may have finally figured out why.

母牛分枝桿菌是一種無毒細菌，存在於土壤中，在健康研究方面有相當大的潛力，現在一項新的研究最終給出了原因。

The findings suggest that a specific kind of fat inside M. vaccae could be why exposure to this seemingly beneficial bacterium in ground soil may be good for us.

研究結果表明可能就是母牛分枝桿菌中一種特定的脂肪使接觸這種看似有益的土壤細菌對我們有好處的。

This work ties in with the idea of "old friends", a hypothesis that claims humans co-evolved with a bunch of useful microorganisms, and losing those ties in the modern environment has led to an increase in allergic and autoimmune diseases.

這種作用與“老朋友”的說法有關，是一種假設，認爲人類和一些有益微生物共同進化。而在現代環境中失去這種聯繫導致了過敏性和自身免疫性疾病的增加。

圖片來源：視覺中國

"The idea is that as humans have moved away from farms and an agricultural or hunter-gatherer existence into cities, we have lost contact with organisms that served to regulate our immune system and suppress inappropriate inflammation," says neuroendocrinologist Christopher Lowry.

神經內分泌學家Christopher Lowry說：“這個說法就是隨着人類從農場和以農業或狩獵採集爲生的生活轉移到了城市中，我們失去了和微生物的聯繫，而這些微生物能調節免疫系統、抑制不良炎症。”

"That has put us at higher risk for inflammatory disease and stress-related psychiatric disorders."

“這使我們出現炎症和患與壓力有關的精神障礙的風險增高。”

Lowry has been researching M. vaccae for years, finding in a previous study that injecting mice with a heat-killed preparation of the bacterium prevented the emergence of stress-induced reactions in the animals.

Lowry研究母牛分枝桿菌多年，在此前的一項研究中發現給小鼠注射熱休克製備的母牛分枝桿菌會避免動物產生應激反應。

But until now, nobody was sure what was it in M. vaccae that could be responsible for such effects.

但是，在此之前，還沒人能確定母牛分枝桿菌中是什麼成分有這種作用。

翻譯：菲菲