TED2009
Kary Mullis: A next-gen cure for killer infections
Kary Mullis apresenta uma cura de nova geração para infecções mortíferas.
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As bactérias multi resistentes matam, mesmo nos melhores hospitais. Mas infecções complicadas como as provocadas por Staphilococcus e Anthrax podem agora vir a ter uma surpresa. O Nobel da Química Kary Mullis, que viu um amigo morrer quando fortes antibióticos falharam, revela uma nova cura radical que promete resultados extraordinários.
Kary Mullis - Biochemist
Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way to copy a strand of DNA. (His technique, called PCR, jump-started the 1990s' biorevolution.) He's known for his wide-ranging interests -- and strong opinions. Full bio
Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way to copy a strand of DNA. (His technique, called PCR, jump-started the 1990s' biorevolution.) He's known for his wide-ranging interests -- and strong opinions. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:18
So it was about four years ago, five years ago,
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Há cerca de quatro anos atrás, cinco anos,
00:21
I was sitting on a stage in Philadelphia, I think it was,
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estava num palco em Filadélfia, acho que era,
00:23
with a bag similar to this.
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com uma mala semelhante a esta.
00:26
And I was pulling a molecule out of this bag.
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E estava a tirar uma molécula dessa mala.
00:29
And I was saying, you don't know this molecule really well,
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E estava a dizer, não conhecem esta molécula muito bem.
00:32
but your body knows it extremely well.
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Mas o vosso corpo conhece-a extremamente bem.
00:35
And I was thinking that your body hated it, at the time,
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E estava a pensar que o vosso corpo a odiava, nessa altura.
00:39
because we are very immune to this. This is called alpha-gal epitope.
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Porque somos muito imunes a isto. Isto é um epítopo Alpha-gal.
00:42
And the fact that pig heart valves have lots of these on them
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E o facto de as válvulas cardíacas dos porcos terem muitos destes
00:46
is the reason that you can't transplant a pig heart valve into a person easily.
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é o motivo de não podermos transplantar uma válvula cardíaca de porco numa pessoa com facilidade.
00:50
Actually our body doesn't hate these.
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Na verdade o nosso organismo não odeia estes.
00:52
Our body loves these. It eats them.
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O nosso organismo adora-os. Come-os.
00:55
I mean, the cells in our immune system are always hungry.
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Quero dizer, as células do nosso sistema imunitário estão sempre com fome.
00:58
And if an antibody is stuck to one of these things
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E se um anticorpo é preso a uma destas coisas
01:02
on the cell, it means "that's food."
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na célula, significa "é comida".
01:05
Now, I was thinking about that and I said, you know, we've got this
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Agora, estava a pensar sobre isso e disse, sabem, temos esta
01:07
immune response to this ridiculous molecule
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resposta imune a esta molécula ridícula
01:10
that we don't make, and we see it a lot in other animals and stuff.
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que nós não produzimos, e encontramo-la em outros animais e coisas.
01:14
But I said we can't get rid of it,
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Mas disse que não nos podíamos livrar dela.
01:17
because all the people who tried to transplant heart valves
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Porque todas as pessoas que tentaram transplantar válvulas cardíacas
01:19
found out you can't get rid of that immunity.
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descobriram que não nos podemos livrar dessa imunidade.
01:21
And I said, why don't you use that?
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E eu disse, porque não tiramos proveito disso?
01:23
What if I could stick this molecule,
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E se nós conseguíssemos prender esta molécula,
01:26
slap it onto a bacteria
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colá-la numa bactéria
01:28
that was pathogenic to me, that had just invaded my lungs?
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que fosse patogénica para mim, e que tivesse invadido os meus pulmões?
01:32
I mean I could immediately tap into
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Podia iniciar de imediato
01:34
an immune response that was already there,
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uma resposta imune que já lá estava preparada.
01:36
where it was not going to take five or six days to develop it --
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Que não ia levar cinco ou seis dias a desenvolver.
01:39
it was going to immediately attack whatever this thing was on.
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Ia de imediato atacar o que quer que fosse a que isto estivesse preso.
01:42
It was kind of like the same thing that happens when you,
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É em parte semelhante ao que vos acontece quando,
01:44
like when you're getting stopped for a traffic ticket in L.A.,
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são mandados parar para sem multados em L.A.,
01:48
and the cop drops a bag of marijuana in the back of your car,
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e os polícias colocam um saco de marijuana na parte de trás do vosso carro,
01:51
and then charges you for possession of marijuana.
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e depois multa-vos por posse de marijuana.
01:54
It's like this very fast, very efficient way to get people off the street.
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É uma forma muito rápida, muito eficiente de colocar as pessoas fora das ruas.
01:58
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
02:00
So you can take a bacteria
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Assim, podem pegar numa bactéria
02:02
that really doesn't make these things at all,
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que não faz de todo estas coisas,
02:04
and if you could clamp these on it really well
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e se conseguirem prender bem isto nela
02:06
you have it taken off the street.
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têm-na fora das ruas.
02:08
And for certain bacteria
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E para certas bactérias
02:10
we don't have really efficient ways to do that anymore.
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já não temos hoje formas realmente eficazes de o fazer.
02:12
Our antibiotics are running out.
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Os nosso antibióticos estão a esgotar-se.
02:14
And, I mean, the world apparently is running out too.
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E, quero dizer, o mundo aparentemente também se está a esgotar.
02:17
So probably it doesn't matter 50 years from now --
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Por isso talvez não importe daqui a 50 anos;
02:20
streptococcus and stuff like that will be rampant --
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Streptococcus e companhia vão ser fulminantes.
02:23
because we won't be here. But if we are --
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porque não vamos cá estar. Mas se estivermos
02:25
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
02:27
we're going to need something to do with the bacteria.
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vamos precisar de algo para tratar das bactérias.
02:29
So I started working with this thing,
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Então comecei a trabalhar com isto,
02:33
with a bunch of collaborators.
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com um conjunto de colegas.
02:35
And trying to attach this to things that were
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E a tentar ligar isto a coisas que eram
02:38
themselves attached to certain specific target zones,
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elas próprias ligadas a zonas alvo específicas,
02:42
bacteria that we don't like.
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bactérias de que não gostamos.
02:44
And I feel now like George Bush.
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E agora sinto-me como o George Bush.
02:48
It's like "mission accomplished."
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É como "missão cumprida".
02:50
So I might be doing something dumb, just like he was doing at the time.
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Assim posso estar a fazer algo disparatado, como ele estava a fazer na altura.
02:53
But basically what I was talking about there we've now gotten to work.
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Mas basicamente aquilo de que estava a falar já conseguimos que funcionasse.
02:57
And it's killing bacteria. It's eating them.
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E está a matar bactérias. Está a comê-las.
03:01
This thing can be stuck, like that little green triangle up there,
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Isto pode ser anexado, tal como aquele triângulo verde ali em cima,
03:05
sort of symbolizing this right now.
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que o simboliza.
03:08
You can stick this to something called a DNA aptamer.
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Podemos associá-lo a algo designado um aptâmero de DNA.
03:11
And that DNA aptamer will attach specifically
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E esse aptâmero de DNA vai ligar-se especificamente
03:13
to a target that you have selected for it.
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a um alvo que seleccionámos para ele.
03:15
So you can find a little feature on a bacterium that you don't like,
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Assim podem encontrar uma pequena particularidade numa bactéria que não gostem,
03:19
like Staphylococcus -- I don't like it in particular,
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como a Staphilococcus. Eu não gosto particularmente dela,
03:22
because it killed a professor friend of mine last year.
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porque matou um professor meu amigo o ano passado.
03:25
It doesn't respond to antibiotics. So I don't like it.
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Não responde a antibióticos. Então não gosto dela.
03:28
And I'm making an aptamer that will have this attached to it.
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E estou a fazer um aptâmero que terá isto ligado a ele.
03:31
That will know how to find Staph when it's in your body,
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Que vai saber como encontrar a Staphilococcus quando ela estiver no organismo,
03:34
and will alert your immune system to go after it.
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e vai alertar o sistema imunitário para ir atrás dela.
03:37
Here's what happened. See that line on the very top
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Aqui está o resultado. Vêm aquela linha no topo
03:40
with the little dots?
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com os pequenos pontos?
03:42
That's a bunch of mice that had been poisoned
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É um conjunto de ratinhos que foi infectada
03:45
by our scientist friends down in Texas,
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pelos nossos amigos cientistas lá em baixo no Texas,
03:47
at Brooks Air Base, with anthrax.
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na Base Aérea de Brooks, com Anthrax.
03:50
And they had also been treated with a drug that we made
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E foram também tratados com um fármaco que desenvolvemos
03:53
that would attack anthrax in particular,
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que vai atacar o Anthrax em particular,
03:56
and direct your immune system to it.
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e direccionar o sistema imunitário para ele.
03:58
You'll notice they all lived, the ones on the top line --
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Vão reparar que todos sobreviveram, todos os da linha do topo.
04:00
that's a 100 percent survival rate.
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É uma taxa de sobrevivência de 100%.
04:02
And they actually lived another 14 days,
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E na verdade viveram outros 14 dias,
04:05
or 28 when we finally killed them,
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ou 28 quando finalmente os matámos,
04:07
and took them apart and figured out what went wrong.
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e analisámos e percebemos o que correu mal.
04:10
Why did they not die?
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Porque não morreram?
04:12
And they didn't die because they didn't have anthrax anymore.
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E eles não morreram porque já não tinham Anthrax.
04:15
So we did it. Okay?
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Alcançámos o objectivo. Ok?
04:17
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
04:19
Mission accomplished!
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Missão cumprida!
04:21
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Kary Mullis - BiochemistKary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way to copy a strand of DNA. (His technique, called PCR, jump-started the 1990s' biorevolution.) He's known for his wide-ranging interests -- and strong opinions.
Why you should listen
In the early 1980s, Kary Mullis developed the polymerase chain reaction, an elegant way to make copies of a DNA strand using the enzyme polymerase and some basic DNA "building blocks." The process opened the door to more in-depth study of DNA -- like the Human Genome Project. Mullis shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing this technique.
As he tells it, after winning the Nobel Prize, his next career move was to learn how to surf. It's typical of Mullis, whose scientific method is to get deeply curious about a topic, work it out from first principles, and then imagine the next giant leap forward. As he puts it in his Nobel autobiography, revised several times since 1993, "I read a lot, and think a lot, and I can talk about almost anything. Being a Nobel laureate is a license to be an expert in lots of things as long as you do your homework."
Most recently, he's been taking a hard look at immunity; a recent patent from his company Altermune describes the redirection of an existing immune response to a new pathogen.
Kary Mullis | Speaker | TED.com