经济学人87:是否有种疫苗能对付毒品滥用？

 　　Science and Technology Combating addiction²

　　科技 打击吸毒

　　Can a vaccine³ stop drug abuse?

　　是否有种疫苗能对付毒品滥用？

　　It may be possible to vaccinate⁴ people against addictive⁵ drugs

　　向吸毒者接种疫苗防止毒瘾将成为可能

　　THE idea of vaccinating⁶ drug addicts⁷ against their affliction is an intriguing⁸ one.

　　如何消除吸毒者的毒瘾折磨，是个有挑战性的命题。

　　In principle, it should not be too hard.

　　从理论上来讲，这并不难。

　　The immune system works, in part, by making antibodies that are specific to particular sorts of hostile molecule⁹.

　　只要让免疫系统，产生某种针对这种恶性分子的抗体便可。

　　Such antibodies recognise and attach themselves to these molecules¹⁰, rendering¹¹ them harmless.

　　这种抗体能识别并紧紧附在毒品分子上，尽可能消灭它们。

　　Vaccines¹² work by presenting the immune system with novel targets, so that it can learn to react to them if it comes across them again.

　　疫苗让免疫系统有了明确的对付目标，系统便能在下次遇到该种病毒时有所反应，将其及时消灭

　　The problem is that the molecules antibodies recognise and react to are the big ones, such as proteins, that are characteristic of bacteria, viruses and other infectious agents.

　　问题是，抗体能够识别出较大的分子，比如以蛋白质形式表现出来的，像细菌，病毒，或者别的感染物质。

　　Small molecules, such as drugs, go unnoticed.

　　较小的分子，比如毒品，却不能识别出来。

　　But not for much longer, if Kim Janda of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego has his way.

　　不久后这一情况会有所改变，圣地亚哥克里斯普研究所的Kim Janda谈到。

　　In a paper just published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Dr Janda and his colleagues suggest how a vaccine against methamphetamine, a popular street drug, might be made.

　　近期出版的美国化学学会杂志中，一篇文章提到，Janda博士及他的同事们发现，一种对抗常见毒品甲基苯丙胺的疫苗有望实现。

　　If their method works, it would open the possibility of vaccinating people against other drugs, too.

　　以此类推，对抗其他毒品的疫苗也将可能到来。

　　The idea of a methamphetamine vaccine is not new.

　　研制对抗甲基苯丙胺的疫苗设想已不是新话题了。

　　The problem is getting the immune system to pay attention to a molecule that is such a small target.

　　关键在于免疫系统能“发现”这样小的目标。

　　The way that has been tried in the past is to build the vaccine from several components¹³.

　　过去的日子里很多方法都已试验，并从不同角度研发疫苗。

　　First, there is a large carrier protein that forms a platform for the target.

　　首先，需要一个蛋白质载体作为平台，让免疫系统能发现毒品分子。

　　Then there is the target itself, a set of smaller molecules called haptens that are attached to the carrier. These may either be the drug in question or some analogue¹⁴ of it that, for one reason or another, is to have a better chance of training the immune system.

　　有了目标后，将会有一系列被称作半抗原的分子将会聚集在这些病毒载体上，这些病毒或者类似的分子，无论怎样，有助于提高免疫系统的识别能力。

　　Finally, there is a chemical cocktail¹⁵ called an adjuvant that helps get the immune system to pay attention to the carrier protein and the haptens.

　　最后，一种叫佐剂的化学物质，推动免疫系统识别蛋白质载体和半抗原

　　Dr Janda noticed that past experiments on methamphetamine vaccines had all revolved¹⁶ around tweaking either the carrier protein or the adjuvant, rather than tinkering with the haptens.

　　Janda博士根据过去针对甲基苯丙胺疫苗的实验发现，该疫苗更多时候是反复出现于蛋白质载体或者佐剂附近，却并非是半抗原的补充作用。

　　He thought he might be able to change that, on the basis of work he had carried out previously¹⁷, trying to design a vaccine against nicotine¹⁸. In particular, nicotine is a highly flexible molecule.

　　他认为他可以设法改变这一现状。就目前的研发成果的基础上，他正在研发某种对抗尼古丁的疫苗。

　　That makes it hard for the immune system to recognise.

　　尤其是，尼古丁是一种较灵活的分子，使免疫系统更加难以识别。

　　To overcome this, his team on the nicotine project had to work out how to fix their haptens to the carrier protein in a way that rendered them less capable of twisting and turning, and thus made them easier for the immune system to identify.

　　为克服这一困难， Janda博士的团队已经研究出如何令半抗原附在蛋白质载体上，并让其活动稳定一些。如此，免疫系统便能更好的识别出病毒。

　　In the new study, Dr Janda and his colleagues report that they have performed a similar trick with methamphetamine haptens.

　　Janda博士和他的同事们最新研究表示，他们已成功应对甲基苯丙胺半抗原，

　　They used computer models to visualise the haptens in three dimensions and thus work out how the molecules could be rearranged such that they could not spring, twist or turn when being examined by the immune system.

　　他们利用电脑模拟视图显示三种形式的半抗原，并证明免疫系统检查人体时，分子可被重新排列并不在复发。

　　In light of this information they designed six new methamphetamine-like haptens.

　　据此，他们设计了六种全新的似甲基苯丙胺半抗原。

　　Once built, they attached the new hapten molecules to carrier proteins, mixed them with adjuvant, injected the results into mice and waited.

　　之后，他们把这些新的半抗原分子和着佐剂附在蛋白质载体上，并试验于白鼠。

　　After several weeks they tested the mice to see if the animal's?? blood contained antibodies to methamphetamine.

　　几周后，他们测试了这些白鼠，看它们血液内是否含有对抗甲基苯丙胺的抗体。

　　Of the six new haptens, three successfully provoked the mice to make such antibodies.

　　在这六种半抗原中，有三种成功：小白鼠体内有了抗体。

　　As a bonus, one of those three also stimulated¹⁹ the production of antibodies against another widely used drug, amphetamine.

　　在三只中白鼠的一只，其抗体将会被广泛运用，生产对抗另一种药物安非他明的抗体。

　　That is still a long way from providing a working vaccine, but it is an important step forward.

　　尽管前路漫漫，但此举终是重要一步。

　　And if human immune systems react in the same way to the new vaccines as murine ones do, the day when a drug addict¹ might be offered vaccination²⁰ rather than opprobrium²¹ will have come a little closer.

　　若是人体免疫系统能像小老鼠那样接受疫苗的话，用疫苗解决毒瘾将指日可待。

1 addict   

v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人

参考例句：

• He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博，最终输掉了全部家产。
• He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。

2 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

3 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

4 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

5 addictive   

adj.(吸毒等)使成瘾的，成为习惯的

参考例句：

• The problem with video game is that they're addictive.电子游戏机的问题在于它们会使人上瘾。
• Cigarettes are highly addictive.香烟很容易使人上瘾。

6 vaccinating   

给…接种疫苗( vaccinate的现在分词 )； 注射疫苗，接种疫苗

参考例句：

• At first blush, vaccinating the wolves against rabies seems a simple solution. 乍一看来，为狼群注射防狂犬病疫苗是一种简单的办法。
• Also vaccinating children against misers (measles) has saved many lives. 还有，给儿童进行疫苗接种防止麻疹也挽救了许多生命。

7 addicts   

有…瘾的人( addict的名词复数 )； 入迷的人

参考例句：

• a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
• There is counseling to help Internet addicts?even online. 有咨询机构帮助网络沉迷者。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

8 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 molecule   

n.分子，克分子

参考例句：

• A molecule of water is made up of two atoms of hygrogen and one atom of oxygen.一个水分子是由P妈̬f婘̬ 妈̬成的。
• This gives us the structural formula of the molecule.这种方式给出了分子的结构式。

10 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

11 rendering   

n.表现，描写

参考例句：

• She gave a splendid rendering of Beethoven's piano sonata.她精彩地演奏了贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• His narrative is a super rendering of dialect speech and idiom.他的叙述是方言和土语最成功的运用。

12 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

13 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

14 analogue   

n.类似物；同源语

参考例句：

• The gill of a fish is the analogue of the lung of a cat.鱼的鳃和猫的肺是类似物。
• But aside from that analogue standby,the phone, videoconferencing is their favorite means of communication.除了备用的相似物电话，可视对话是他们最喜欢的沟通手段。

15 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

16 revolved   

v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想

参考例句：

• The fan revolved slowly. 电扇缓慢地转动着。
• The wheel revolved on its centre. 轮子绕中心转动。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

18 nicotine   

n.(化)尼古丁，烟碱

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily.许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily.许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。

19 stimulated   

a.刺激的

参考例句：

• The exhibition has stimulated interest in her work. 展览增进了人们对她作品的兴趣。
• The award has stimulated her into working still harder. 奖金促使她更加努力地工作。

20 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

21 opprobrium   

n.耻辱，责难

参考例句：

• The opprobrium and enmity he incurred were caused by his outspoken brashness.他招致的轻蔑和敌意是由于他出言过于粗率而造成的。
• That drunkard was the opprobrium of our community.那个酒鬼是我们社区里可耻的人物。