经济学人48:痴呆症的诊断 病情恶化预警

 　　Science and Technolgy

　　科技

　　Diagnosing dementia

　　痴呆症的诊断

　　Advance warning

　　病情恶化预警

　　How to detect Alzheimer's before symptoms appear-if you are a woman

　　作为一名女性，如何在症状出现前诊断阿尔茨海默氏症

　　ALZHEIMER'S disease has no cure.

　　阿尔茨海默氏症目前尚无法治愈。

　　There are, however, five drugs-known and approved-that can slow down the development of its symptoms.

　　然而，有五种已知并获批准的药物能减缓其症状的恶化。

　　The earlier such drugs are administered, the better.

　　这些药物越早使用，效果越佳。

　　Unfortunately, the disease is usually first noticed when people complain to their doctors of memory problems.

　　遗憾的是，该疾病一般在病人向医生抱怨自己记忆力出了问题时才第一次被察觉。

　　That is normally too late for the drugs to do much good.

　　通常在这种情况下，药物的最佳治疗时机已过。

　　A simple and reliable test for Alzheimer's that can be administered to everybody over the age of about 65, before memory-loss sets in, would therefore be useful.

　　因此，只有找到一种能在65岁以上人群记忆力衰退前检测该病的简单、可靠的方法，才能真正收到疗效。

　　Theo Luider, of the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, and his colleagues think they have found one-but it works only in women.

　　荷兰鹿特丹伊拉斯姆斯大学医学中心的西奥?路德和同事找到了一种有效的检测方法，但只对女性有效。

　　They made their discovery, just reported in the Journal of Proteome Research, by tapping into a long-term, continuing study that started in 1995 with 1,077 non-demented and otherwise healthy people aged¹ between 60 and 90.

　　该发现刊登在了最新的《蛋白质组学研究杂志》。这是一项始于1995年的长期且仍在持续的研究，共有1077名年龄在60至90岁的精神正常且身体健康的人参与。

　　At the beginning of the project, and subsequently during the periods 1997-99 and 2002-04, participants were brought in for a battery of neurological and cognitive² investigations³, physical examinations, brain imaging and blood tests.

　　研究初期，以及此后的1997-1999和2002-2004两个时间段内，参与者分别接受了一轮神经和认知系统测试、身体检查、大脑成像和血液检查。

　　During the first ten years of the study, 43 of the volunteers developed Alzheimer's disease.

　　研究的第一个10年间，43名志愿者患上了阿尔茨海默氏症。

　　When Dr Luider compared blood samples from these people with samples from 43 of their fellow volunteers, matched for sex and age, who had remained Alzheimer's-free, he found something startling.

　　路德医生将这些人的血液样本和另外43名性别、年龄匹配但没有患病的志愿者对比后，有了惊人的发现。

　　Levels of a substance called pregnancy⁴ zone protein had been unusually high, even before their symptoms appeared, in some of those who went on to develop Alzheimer's disease.

　　某些患上阿尔茨海默氏症的志愿者，其血液中一种名为妊娠带蛋白的物质含量非常高，甚至在症状出现前也是如此。

　　Those "some", it turned out, were all women.

　　这些志愿者，最终都被确认为女性。

　　On average, levels of pregnancy zone protein in those women who went on to develop Alzheimer's were almost 60% higher than those of women who did not. In men, levels of the protein were the same for both.

　　通常，女性患者体内的妊娠带蛋白含量比健康女性高出60%，男性的这一蛋白水平则没有变化。

　　The reason for this curious result seems to be that the brain plaques⁵ associated with Alzheimer's disease are themselves turning out pregnancy zone protein.

　　出现这一结果的原因可能是，与阿尔茨海默氏症相关的大脑斑块自身分泌这一蛋白。

　　Certainly, when Dr Luider applied⁶ a chemical stain specific to that protein to the plaques of dead Alzheimer's patients he found the protein present in them.

　　路德医生将针对该蛋白的特定化学染色剂注入死亡病人的大脑斑块中，从而证明了这一蛋白的存在。

　　Confusingly, though, it was there in the plaques of both sexes.

　　然而，令人不解的是，男女病患的大脑斑块中都有这一蛋白。

　　Presumably, female cells (and therefore the plaques of female brains) make more of it than male cells do.

　　据此推测，女性细胞（包括女性大脑中的斑块）比男性细胞分泌更多的妊娠带蛋白。

　　But that remains⁷ to be proved.

　　不过，这一理论还有待证实。

　　Whatever the reason, however, this result means that women, at least, may soon be able to tell whether and when they are at risk of Alzheimer's-and thus do something about it before they start losing their minds.

　　不论是什么原因，这项结果至少意味着女性能更早知晓自己是否有罹患阿尔茨海默氏症的危险，从而在丧失记忆之前尽快加以治疗。

1 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

2 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

3 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

4 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

5 plaques   

（纪念性的）匾牌( plaque的名词复数 )； 纪念匾； 牙斑； 空斑

参考例句：

• Primary plaques were detectable in 16 to 20 hours. 在16到20小时内可查出原发溶斑。
• The gondoliers wore green and white livery and silver plaques on their chests. 船夫们穿着白绿两色的制服，胸前别着银质徽章。

6 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。