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哮喘药可有效防治阿兹海默症!

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2018年06月26日

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Scientists have used a mice model to reverse some of the most severe damage done to the brain by dementia - and they did this with a surprisingly old medication typically used for asthma.

医药学新发现的经典模式:一种哮喘药物能够有效减缓、甚至阻止俗称老年痴呆的阿兹海默症。

哮喘药可有效防治阿兹海默症!

The discovery could open up the road for treatments that could restore memory and spatial impairment in people with conditions like Alzheimer's. While a human treatment is still some way off, the research shows one method we could use to retroactively treat the buildup of tau proteins, long thought to be a key factor in dementia.

该发现或开辟出一条全新的治疗途径,可以恢复阿茨海默症患者的记忆力和空间认知能力受损的情况。虽然用于人类临床治疗还需一段时间,但现阶段的研究表明,我们有了一种方法来解决tau蛋白积聚问题,这种蛋白长期以来被认为是引发老年痴呆的关键因素。

Key to the improvement was an asthma drug called zileuton (or Zyflo) that's been in use for 22 years. The team from Temple University in Philadelphia is highly optimistic, claiming that their findings could eventually improve the lives of millions of people with dementia.

关键性的药物是原本用于治疗哮喘的zileuton(或Zyflo),该药物投入临床使用已经超过了22年。费城坦普尔大学的团队非常乐观,声称他们的发现最终会改善数百万老年人的生活。

"We show that we can intervene after disease is established and pharmacologically rescue mice that have tau-induced memory deficits," says senior investigator Domenico Praticò.

高级研究员Domenico Praticò说:“我们可以在疾病症状出现后立刻开始干预。药理实验表明,我们挽救了那些人为诱导tau蛋白以至于出现记忆缺陷的小鼠。”

There's still plenty we don't know about diseases like Alzheimer's, but the evidence points to tangles of tau proteins blocking connections between neurons. Another protein, amyloid precursor protein (APP), is also thought to be involved.

目前尚不清楚该药物对人类阿兹海默症的疗效如何,但有证据表明,正是tau蛋白阻碍了神经元之间的连接。此外另一种蛋白质,淀粉样蛋白前体蛋白(APP)也被认为对老年痴呆负有责任。

In this study the scientists targeted inflammatory molecules called leukotrienes. Having found that leukotrienes cause damage to nerve cells as dementia develops, the team wanted to try blocking the formation of these molecules.

在这项研究中,科学家盯上了被称为白三烯的炎症分子。以往发现,随着阿兹海默症的恶化,白三烯会对神经细胞造成损伤。该团队试图阻止这些分子的形成。

That's where zileuton came in. It was given to one group of mice engineered to have similar dementia problems to 60-year-old humans with the condition, while another group of mice were given placebos instead.

这就是用到zileuton的地方。实验设计中,科学家将人为造成神经损伤的白鼠分为两组,一组作为对照组,另一组喂下zileuton。

After 16 weeks, treated mice were performing much better on maze tests than mice who hadn't received zileuton. The treated group was also found to have 90 percent fewer leukotrienes in their brains, and 50 percent fewer tau tangles.

16周后,吃过药物的小鼠在迷宫测试中的表现比对照组的小鼠更好。在经过治疗的实验小鼠脑部,白三烯水平低出90%,异常tau蛋白水平低出50%,神经突触几乎没有受到损害。

"It's really dramatic what we observed," Praticò told Stacey Burling at The Inquirer. "For the first time, we are showing that we can do something after the disease is established."

“实验里,我们看到了戏剧性的历史一幕,”Praticò对记者说,“这是第一次表明,我们确实能够治疗阿兹海默症。”

In fact, the synapses of the mice given zileuton looked as healthy as normal mice after close analysis. It's almost as if this aspect of the dementia had been completely cleared up.

实际上,在经过仔细的检验后,服过药的小鼠的突触看起来与正常小鼠一样健康。就好像完全治愈了一样。

Before we get too excited, there are some limitations to consider. For example, these mice didn't have any beta-amyloid plaque build ups (caused by APP) in their brains, which are consistently found alongside tau plaques in human brains with dementia.

在我们过于激动之前,还需要考虑一些具体的情况。例如,白鼠的脑中没有任何β-淀粉状蛋白斑块积聚(由APP引起),如果要完美模仿人类的老年痴呆,阿兹海默患者脑中tau蛋白和β-淀粉状蛋白斑块可是应该同时出现的。

And while mice are often used in research for their genetic and biological similarity to humans, transferring treatments over from these animals can be difficult. Add to that the limits of our understanding about dementia, and there's still a lot of work to be done.

虽然实验小鼠与人类在遗传和生物学性状方面具有相似性,但直接复制动物的治疗过程可能是极度困难的。除此之外,我们对阿兹海默的了解也并不完善,未来还有很多工作要做。

Nevertheless, the fact that researchers were able to actually reverse some of the damage of dementia after it had taken hold is cause for celebration, because the condition isn't usually diagnosed in humans until the effects have already started.

尽管如此,研究人员能够真切逆转老年痴呆的后果,这一事实就值得庆贺,这就是前所未有的突破。

Another reason for optimism is that zileuton has already been approved as a safe drug, albeit with advisory warnings and potential side effects. But it should make it easier to set up a clinical trial, which the team of scientists wants to do next.

令人乐观的另一个原因是zileuton早就被批准为用于临床的安全药物,虽然也有潜在的副作用。但它应该能够更容易通过未来的安全测试。

"This is an old drug for a new disease," says Praticò. "The research could soon be translated to the clinic, to human patients with Alzheimer's disease."

“它是治疗新型疾病的老药,”Praticò说,“这项研究可以很快投入临床,造福人类患者。”


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