科学美国人60秒（翻译）辣椒降低小鼠肠道炎症 2017.05.09

Hot Chilies Cool Down Gut Inflammation in Mice

辣椒降低小鼠肠道炎症

The ingredient that makes hot chilies hot is called capsaicin—and it can set your mouth on fire. But the spicy compound has a soothing effect too: in your gut, it kicks off a chemical cascade that might calm the immune system and reduce inflammation.

使红辣椒非常辣的成分叫做辣椒素，它可以让你的嘴巴像着火了似的。但是这种辛辣的化合物也有舒缓的作用：在你的肠道里，它会启动一个化学反应式，可以使免疫系统平静下来，同时减少炎症。

Researchers studied that phenomenon in mice. Once inside the gut, the capsaicin molecules plugged into a specific receptor, spurring the release of another compound, called anandamide. Anandamide happens to be an endocannabinoid—similar to active ingredients in marijuana—which binds to cannabinoid receptors in the gut. That last step in the cascade ramped up the production of cells that damp down inflammation in the mice—and even cured them of a mouse model of diabetes type 1, an autoimmune disease.

研究人员对老鼠进行了研究。辣椒素一旦进入肠道，分子会进入到一个特定的受体中，刺激另一种化合物释放，这被称为内源性大麻素。内源性大麻素---是一个类似于大麻结合肠道中的大麻素受体的活性成分。这一系列化学反应式的最后一步是，它可以使细胞的繁殖增加，从而降低小鼠的炎症，甚至治愈了自身免疫性疾病1型糖尿病。

If all this sounds a bit similar to the chemical messaging that happens in the brain… that's because it is. "The gut has a very large nervous system. It's almost as large as the brain itself. Pramod Srivastava, an immunologist at UConn Health and one of the study’s leaders.

如果这一切听起来有点类似于大脑中发生了化学反应的话，那是因为它真的是这样的。“肠道有一个非常大的神经系统。它几乎和大脑本身一样大。”马斯里瓦斯塔瓦，康涅狄格乐天堂国际健康研究乐天堂国际_乐天堂国际娱乐官网_乐天堂国际娱乐_乐天堂国际娱乐乐天堂国际娱乐的免疫学家。

"We don't quite fully understand what this huge amount of neurons are doing in the gut. We don't understand its language, and the molecules and mediators. And I think with this work we can at least claim to have found a couple of words in that language." The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Nandini Acharya et al., Endocannabinoid system acts as a regulator of immune homeostasis in the gut]

“我们还不能完全理解这种神经元在肠道内的活动。我们不理解它的语言、分子和介质。我认为，在这项工作中，我们至少可以声称已经找到了这种语言中的两个词。”这项研究结果发表在美国国家科学院学报。[Nandini Acharya et al，内源性大麻素成为肠道免疫平衡调节器研究]

So to recap that chemical chain: chilies cause the production of endocannabinoids, which produce immune suppressant cells, which soothe inflammation. So, what if you cut out the chili initiator, and just eat cannabinoids—pot brownies, stuff like that? 

所以综上所述，化学链：辣椒素引起内源性大麻素增加，从而产生免疫抑制细胞，减轻炎症。所以，如果你剔除了辣椒，吃火锅时还有啥可吃的呢？

"Obviously we are very interested in people who use edible cannabinoids. I'm extremely curious if people with colitis or Crohn's disease, who are edible pot users, do they benefit from it? I have no idea. But it's something we can now find out because sizable numbers of people are consuming those edibles.”

“很明显，我们对使用大麻的人很感兴趣。我非常好奇，如果有结肠炎或Crohn氏症患者吃火锅的话，他们会从中受益吗？我不知道。但现在我们发现，已有相当数量的人食用这些食物。”

—Christopher Intagliata

—来自Christopher Intagliata的报道。