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An unusual method for producing antibiotics may help to solve an urgent global problem: the rise in infections that resist treatment with commonly used drugs, and the lack of new antibiotics to replace ones that no longer work. 耐受常用药物治疗的感染日渐增多，却缺乏新型抗生素来替代那些不再有效的药物，这已成为全球亟待解决的问题。一种生产抗生素的特殊方法或可对此有所助益。 The method, which extracts drugs from bacteria that live in dirt, has yielded a powerful new antibiotic, researchers reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday. The new drug, teixobactin, was tested in mice and easily cured severe infections, with no side effects. 研究人员在周三的《自然》(Nature)杂志上报道，这种从生活在泥土里的细菌中提取药物的方法生产出了一种新的强力抗生素。在小鼠试验中，这种新药——teixobactin可以轻松治愈严重感染，且没有出现副作用。 Better still, the researchers said, the drug works in a way that makes it very unlikely that bacteria will become resistant to it. And the method developed to produce the drug has the potential to unlock a trove of natural compounds to fight infections and cancer — molecules that were previously beyond scientists’ reach because the microbes that produce them could not be grown in the laboratory. 更妙的是，研究人员称，这种药物具有独特的作用机理，使其几乎不会引起细菌耐药性。而且，这种生产药物的方法或许还能成为一把钥匙，打开蕴藏着可抵抗感染和癌症的天然化合物大宝藏——要知道，在此之前，由于能产生这些化合物的微生物不能在实验室中生长，科学家们对它们一直只能望而兴叹。 | 
