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蠕虫,生命与死亡:发育与疾病中的细胞自杀

Worms, Life and Death: Cell Suicide in Development and Disease
课程网址: http://videolectures.net/mitworld_horvitz_wlad/  
主讲教师: H Robert Horvitz
开课单位: 麻省理工学院
开课时间: 2011-08-26
课程语种: 英语
中文简介:
显微蛔虫在我们这个时代一些最关键的医学研究中已经发挥了主导作用。在罗伯特·霍维茨和他的同事的实验室里,秀丽线虫有助于揭示细胞死亡是生物学发展的正常部分。在这次谈话中,霍维茨刻苦地描绘了一系列基于C.elegans的发现,这些发现确定了程序性细胞死亡(凋亡)背后的遗传学,如果这一正常过程停止,就会出现的紊乱,以及这些紊乱的人类对应物,它们暗示了治疗的潜在目标。因为成熟的蛔虫只由959个细胞组成,所以科学家们可以追踪这种生物的细胞分裂的整个谱系,并鉴定是什么遗传事故造成了突变的蠕虫。科学家们发现了对蠕虫正常发育至关重要的遗传途径,如果这些途径被破坏,就会导致有害的突变。例如,未成熟的蛔虫含有131个在成虫体内没有发现的细胞,因为它们的基因被设定为死亡。Horwitz说,每只动物都会经历细胞凋亡,这是一种“正常的发育过程”。蝌蚪会失去尾巴变成青蛙;很多动物都有“程序性细胞死亡过程中形成的网状物”。多年来,Horvitz和他的同事们确定了导致C细胞程序性死亡的精确基因。线虫,以及保护细胞免于死亡的基因,以及这些基因相互作用的方式。Horvitz的研究团队还发现,这些关键基因和途径可能与人类有相似之处。Horvitz说:“如果这些基因出了问题,就会有什么东西导致疾病。”癌症、自身免疫性疾病和病毒感染都是由于程序性细胞死亡太少造成的。这是因为细胞分裂没有得到控制。还有一些人类疾病是因为细胞在不应该死亡的时候死亡:神经退行性疾病、视网膜变性、肝病和心脏病。由于霍维茨的工作,这些疾病出现了许多新的目标,其中一些是霍维茨本人所追求的。霍维茨现在瞄准了不同的基因调节器,这些调节器能告诉某些类型的细胞存活或死亡,从而为我们最可怕的疾病提供了新的治疗方法。
课程简介: A microscopic roundworm has come to play a dominant role in some of the most pivotal medical research of our time. In the labs of Robert Horvitz and his colleagues, C. elegans has helped reveal cell death as a normal part of biological development. In this talk, Horvitz painstakingly delineates the series of discoveries based on C. elegans that identified the genetics behind programmed cell death (apoptosis), the disorders that emerge if this normal process stalls, and human counterparts to these disorders, which suggest potential targets for therapy. Because the mature roundworm consists of just 959 cells, it was possible for scientists to track the organism’s entire lineage of cell divisions, and to characterize what genetic accidents created mutant worms. Scientists figured out genetic pathways that were essential to normal development in the worm, and which, if disrupted, led to harmful mutations. For instance, the immature roundworm contains 131 cells that are not found in the adult, because they are genetically programmed to die. Every animal, Horwitz says, undergoes apoptosis as a “normal aspect of development.” Tadpoles lose their tails to become frogs; lots of animals have webbing “sculpted out by the process of programmed cell death.” Over years, Horvitz and his colleagues determined the precise genes responsible for programmed cell death in C. elegans, as well as the genes that protect cells from dying, and the way these genes interact. Horvitz’s teams also found likely human equivalents to these critical genes and pathways. If these genes go awry, says Horvitz, “then something is going to lead to disease.” Cancer, autoimmune diseases and viral infections result from too little programmed cell death. That’s because cell division goes unchecked. There are also human diseases that occur because cells die when they should not: neurodegenerative disorders, retinal degeneration, liver disease, and heart attacks. As a result of Horvitz’s work, many new targets have emerged for these diseases, some of which Horvitz himself is pursuing. Horvitz is now aiming his sights at different genetic regulators that tell certain types of cells to live or die, leading to novel therapies for some of our most formidable diseases.
关 键 词: 细胞凋亡; 蠕虫病毒; 自身免疫性疾病
课程来源: 视频讲座网
最后编审: 2019-12-08:lxf
阅读次数: 65