经济学人268:干细胞的应用 特效医学

 　　Science and technology

　　科学技术

　　The uses of stem cells

　　干细胞的应用

　　Potent¹ medicine

　　特效医学

　　Stem cells may transform the development of new drugs

　　干细胞可能改写新药发展

　　PLURIPOTENT is a long word that means able to do many things.

　　多能的意思是能做很多事。

　　It is the technical term applied² to stem cells that can generate many different sorts of bodily tissue, rather than just one sort, which is all that lesser³ stem cells can manage.

　　这一技术术语适用于可分化成多种不同身体组织的干细胞，而不是像次级分化干细胞一样只可以分化成一种身体组织。

　　But many researchers hope these cells will be pluripotent in other ways, too.

　　但是研究者希望干细胞在其他方面也具备多能性。

　　Not only might they be used to make replacement⁴ tissues and organs for transplantation into those whose existing body parts no longer work properly, they might also be used to produce pure cultures of cells for the early testing of drugs.

　　干细胞不仅可用于获得某些身体部分运作不良者移植用的替换组织或器官，还可以用于培养药物早期试验用的纯系细胞。

　　The culturing and use of human pluripotent stem cells is controversial because the natural source of such cells is embryos⁵, which are destroyed by the process of extraction.

　　人类多功能干细胞的培养和使用备受争议，因为这类细胞的自然来源胚胎，在提取过程中会被破坏。

　　But in 2007 two groups of researchers, one in Japan and the other in America, announced that they had worked out how to make adult skin cells behave like natural pluripotent cells, by adding four activated⁶ genes⁷ to them.

　　但是2007年，日本和美国各有研究者表示，通过增加4个激活基因，成人皮肤细胞可有与自然多功能细胞相同的表现。

　　The result is known as an induced pluripotent stem cell.

　　这一成果被称为诱导多功能干细胞。

　　On January 3rd AstraZeneca, a British drug company, said it would buy human heart muscle, blood vessels⁸, nerve cells and liver cells made from iPS cells by Cellular⁹ Dynamics¹⁰, a company founded by James Thomson.

　　1月3日，英国阿斯利康制药表示将向杰姆·汤姆生创立的细胞动力公司购买用诱导能干细胞生产的心肌、血管、神经细胞和肝细胞。

　　Dr Thomson, a biologist at the University of Wisconsin, is the man who led the team that, in 1998, isolated¹¹ the first human embryonic¹² stem cells and in 2007 published the American version of the iPS work.

　　汤姆生博士是威斯康星大学的生物学家。他带领的团队在1998年首次分离了人类胚胎干细胞，并在2007年发表美方的诱导能干工作成果。

　　AstraZeneca has two plans for its purchases.

　　阿斯利康这次的计划有两个：

　　One is to use them to find molecules¹⁴ that encourage non-pluripotent stem cells to turn into mature tissue.

　　一是利用诱导能干细胞寻找能刺激非能干细胞转化成成熟组织的分子。

　　Such molecules could act as drugs that coax¹⁵ damaged tissue to heal itself.

　　这类分子可作为诱导损伤组织自我修复的药物；

　　The second is to use iPS cells to test drugs that have nothing to do with regenerative medicine.

　　二是利用诱导能干细胞测试与再生医学无关的药物。

　　Too often, a promising-looking drug fails late on in a clinical trial.

　　一个前景光明的药物常常在之后的临床试验中失败。

　　Sometimes this is because it does not deliver the promised benefit.

　　有时是由于该药未起到预期作用；

　　Sometimes, however, it works but its side effects prove more dangerous than the disease it is supposed to treat.

　　而有时药物起作用了，但副作用比其治疗的疾病更危险。

　　The cost of failed trials is an important reason why drug research is so expensive.

　　试验花费是药物研究成本高昂的一个重要原因。

　　AstraZeneca therefore plans to use Cellular Dynamics's cells to check the toxicity¹⁶ of potential medicines before they get inside a human being, in order to reduce the number of trials that fail for the second reason.

　　所以阿斯利康计划在人体试验前，利用细胞动力公司的细胞来测试新药的毒性，以便减少由第二个原因导致的试验失败。

　　And AstraZeneca is not the only company using iPS cells in new ways.

　　阿斯利康并不是唯一一家在新领域应用诱导能干细胞的公司。

　　In December GlaxoSmithKline,another British firm, described an experiment in which it assaulted neurons derived¹⁸ from iPS cells with beta-amyloid, a molecule¹³ linked to Alzheimer's disease, and then tested whether the beta-amyloid responded to hundreds of existing drugs.

　　另一家英国公司葛兰素史克11月公布了一项实验：该实验利用带β-淀粉的诱导能干细胞分化的神经细胞来测试β-淀粉对成千上百种现有药物的反应。

　　The findings of this experiment will be published in Stem Cell Research in March.

　　实验结果将发表在3月份的《干细胞研究》上。

　　Another trick made possible by iPS cells is to derive¹⁷ them from patients with specific ailments²⁰—particularly ailments with a genetic²¹ component—and then nudge the induced cells into becoming the type of cell afflicted²² by that ailment¹⁹.

　　诱导能干细胞还可实现另一种可能，即从患有特定疾病—尤其是与基因有关的疾病—的患者身上获得诱导能干细胞，然后使其转变成受该疾病影响的特定细胞。

　　Several groups of researchers have used disease-prone cells created in this way to explore how the disease in question develops, and whether it succumbs²³ to drugs.

　　有几个研究小组已利用这种疾病倾向细胞来探索疾病的发展及药物的有效性。

　　George Daley, of Harvard University, is one of the most enthusiastic explorers of these disease in a dish models.

　　哈弗大学的乔治?戴利是最热衷于这些皿中疾病的研究者之一。

　　In 2008 he created stem-cell lines from people with ten different conditions, including Down's syndrome²⁴, juvenile²⁵ diabetes²⁶ and Parkinson's disease.

　　2008年他从十种不同疾病—包括唐氏综合征、青少年型糖尿病及帕金森病—的患者身上获得干细胞株。

　　Such models are hardly foolproof—Dr Daley himself acknowledges that the technology is still in its infancy—but eventually they may bring new drugs.

　　这些模型难免存在差错—戴利博士也承这一技术还处于起步阶段，但最终它们可能带来新药。

　　iPierian, a company that Dr Daley helped found, has used iPS cells to develop two antibodies that might be used to attack tau, a protein implicated²⁷ in Alzheimer's disease, and also to clear up inflammation linked with Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative conditions.

　　戴利参与创立的iPierian公司利用诱导能干细胞研制了两种抗体。这两种抗体或可用于攻击与阿尔兹海默病有关tau蛋白，同事可能用于消除与阿尔兹海默病和其他神经退化性疾病有关的炎症。

　　That is a use far removed from the original idea of employing stem cells in regenerative medicine.

　　这与将干细胞应用于再生医学的原始想法相去甚远。

　　The plurality of their potency²⁸, then, is only just beginning to be explored.

　　干细胞多能性应用多样化的探索才刚刚起步。

　　1.apply to 适用于；运用；致力于

　　The same logic²⁹ could well apply to the iphone.

　　同样的逻辑或许也完全适用于iphone。

　　These passwords apply to the entire workbook.

　　这些密码可应用于整个工作簿。

　　2.no longer 不再，已不

　　That model no longer works.

　　这种模式现在不再有效。

　　But it no longer does.

　　但美国已经不再需要。

　　3.work out 解决；作出；锻炼

　　Britain, too, must work out what it wants from the eu.

　　英国也必须解决一个问题，即本国想从欧盟得到什么。

　　New cars often suffer quality glitches³⁰ that auto³¹ makers³² try to work out over time.

　　新款汽车常常存在质量上的毛病，需要生产商花时间来解决。

　　4.stem cell 干细胞

　　Her right-to-life convictions extend to stem cell research, which she opposes.

　　她还反对干细胞研究，以表现她那泛滥的”生存权“信念。

　　Long-term follow-up after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

　　异基因造血干细胞移植后的长期随访。

1 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

2 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。

3 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

4 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

5 embryos   

n.晶胚；胚，胚胎( embryo的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Somatic cells of angiosperms enter a regenerative phase and behave like embryos. 被子植物体细胞进入一个生殖阶段，而且其行为象胚。 来自辞典例句
• Evolution can explain why human embryos look like gilled fishes. 进化论能够解释为什么人类的胚胎看起来象除去了内脏的鱼一样。 来自辞典例句

6 activated   

adj. 激活的 动词activate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The canister is filled with activated charcoal.蒸气回收罐中充满了活性炭。

7 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

8 vessels   

n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人

参考例句：

• The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 cellular   

adj.移动的；细胞的，由细胞组成的

参考例句：

• She has a cellular telephone in her car.她的汽车里有一部无线通讯电话机。
• Many people use cellular materials as sensitive elements in hygrometers.很多人用蜂窝状的材料作为测量温度的传感元件。

10 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

11 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

12 embryonic   

adj.胚胎的

参考例句：

• It is still in an embryonic stage.它还处于萌芽阶段。
• The plan,as yet,only exists in embryonic form.这个计划迄今为止还只是在酝酿之中。

13 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。

14 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。

15 coax   

v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取

参考例句：

• I had to coax the information out of him.我得用好话套出他掌握的情况。
• He tried to coax the secret from me.他试图哄骗我说出秘方。

16 toxicity   

n.毒性，毒力

参考例句：

• The hoarse grunt or squeal is characteristic of toxicity.嘶哑的哼声和叫声是中毒的特征。
• Dieldrin is related to aldrin,and its toxicity to earthworms is similar.狄氏剂与艾氏剂有关，对蚯蚓的毒性是相似的。

17 derive   

v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自

参考例句：

• We derive our sustenance from the land.我们从土地获取食物。
• We shall derive much benefit from reading good novels.我们将从优秀小说中获得很大好处。

18 derived   

vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 ailment   

n.疾病，小病

参考例句：

• I don't have even the slightest ailment.我什么毛病也没有。
• He got timely treatment for his ailment.他的病得到了及时治疗。

20 ailments   

疾病（尤指慢性病），不适( ailment的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His ailments include a mild heart attack and arthritis. 他患有轻度心脏病和关节炎。
• He hospitalizes patients for minor ailments. 他把只有小病的患者也送进医院。

21 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

22 afflicted   

使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• About 40% of the country's population is afflicted with the disease. 全国40%左右的人口患有这种疾病。
• A terrible restlessness that was like to hunger afflicted Martin Eden. 一阵可怕的、跟饥饿差不多的不安情绪折磨着马丁·伊登。

23 succumbs   

不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的第三人称单数 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死

参考例句：

• Eventually the virus prevails and the infected person succumbs to the infection. 最终病毒体会战胜药物，而导致感染者死亡。
• A German lender succumbs to perverse incentives. Who's next? 一德国贷方受制屈服于非正当（投资）动机。谁将步其后尘？

24 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

25 juvenile   

n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的

参考例句：

• For a grown man he acted in a very juvenile manner.身为成年人，他的行为举止显得十分幼稚。
• Juvenile crime is increasing at a terrifying rate.青少年犯罪正在以惊人的速度增长。

26 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

27 implicated   

adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的

参考例句：

• These groups are very strongly implicated in the violence. 这些组织与这起暴力事件有着极大的关联。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Having the stolen goods in his possession implicated him in the robbery. 因藏有赃物使他涉有偷盗的嫌疑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

28 potency   

n. 效力，潜能

参考例句：

• Alcohol increases the drug's potency.酒精能增加这种毒品的效力。
• Sunscreen can lose its potency if left over winter in the bathroom cabinet.如果把防晒霜在盥洗室的壁橱里放一个冬天，就有可能失效。

29 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

30 glitches   

n.小过失，差错( glitch的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Manufacturing glitches have limited the factory's output. 生产中的故障影响了该厂的产量。 来自辞典例句
• Another kind of period variation,\"Glitches,\" are seen in several pulsars. 在几个脉冲星中还看到了周期的另一种变化，即“自转突快”现象。 来自辞典例句

31 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

32 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》