An antibiotic developed some 80 years ago before being abandoned and forgotten could again offer exciting new solutions, this time to the emerging threat of drug-resistant superbugs.

一种大约80年前开发出来的抗生素，在被抛弃和遗忘之前，可能再次提供令人兴奋的新解决方案，这次是针对抗药性超级细菌的新威胁。

Half of the bacteria-killing drugs we use today are variations of compounds that were found nearly a century ago, during this 'golden age' of antibiotics. One called streptothricin was isolated in the 1940s, drawing attention for its potential in treating infections caused by what are known as gram-negative bacteria.

我们今天使用的一半杀菌药物是近一个世纪前发现的化合物的变体，当时是抗生素的“黄金时代”。20世纪40年代，一种名为链霉素(streptothricin)的药物被分离出来，它在治疗由革兰氏阴性菌引起的感染方面的潜力引起了人们的关注。

Unlike gram-positive bacteria, these microbes lack a robust cell wall that many antibiotics target. Finding alternatives has been one of the big challenges for the pharmaceutical industry. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a list of the most dangerous, drug-resistant pathogens out there. Most were gram-negative bacteria.

与革兰氏阳性细菌不同，这些微生物缺乏许多抗生素靶向的坚固细胞壁。寻找替代品一直是制药行业面临的巨大挑战之一。2017年，世界卫生组织(世卫组织)发布了一份最危险的耐药病原体清单。大多数是革兰氏阴性菌。

But despite its potential for killing bacteria, streptothricin didn't make the cut. It was deemed too toxic to the health of human kidneys in an initial study and was subsequently buried in the scientific literature.

但是，尽管链霉素具有杀死细菌的潜力，但它并没有被列入名单。在最初的研究中，它被认为对人类肾脏健康的毒性太大，随后被埋没在科学文献中。

Pathologist James Kirby from Harvard University and his colleagues are now digging it back up, exploring its potential under a new name – nourseothricin.

哈佛大学的病理学家詹姆斯·柯比和他的同事们正在将其重新挖掘出来，并以一个新名字——诺氏菌素——来探索它的潜力。

The precise details behind streptothricin's attack are not yet clear, but it seems as though the antibiotic binds to gram-negative bacteria and messes with its protein-making machinery in a different way to other medicines.

链霉素攻击背后的确切细节尚不清楚，但似乎抗生素与革兰氏阴性菌结合，并以与其他药物不同的方式扰乱其蛋白质制造机制。

If researchers can figure out how, it could help them develop a whole new class of medicine for bacteria that have so far proved highly resistant.

如果研究人员能弄清楚其中的原理，就可以帮助他们开发出一种全新的药物来治疗迄今为止被证明具有高度耐药性的细菌。

Kirby and his colleagues have already started exploring how to enhance natural streptothricins, like S-F, to work even better as superbug killers.

柯比和他的同事们已经开始探索如何增强天然链霉菌素，比如S-F，使其更好地成为超级细菌杀手。

The study was published in PLOS Biology.

这项研究发表在《公共科学图书馆·生物学》上。