时差N小时:荧光猫 猴子和艾滋

Have you heard the one about the jellyfish, themonkey, and the glow in the dark cat?

你听说过关于水母、猴子和在荧光猫的事情吗?

Actually, it's no joke: scientists are experimentingwith ways to combat HIV and AIDS by injecting catswith genes taken from macaque monkeys andjellyfish the latter of which makes the felinesglowgreen or red.

事实上，这不是一个玩笑：科学家们正在试验研究防御艾滋病的方法。他们向猫体内注入从恒河猴和水母体内获得的基因，水母的基因能使猫发出绿色或红色的光。

What, you may wonder, do glow in the dark cats and monkey genes have to do with treatingHIV?

你可能会好奇，荧光猫、猴子的基因和治疗艾滋有什么关系?

Like humans and many types of monkeys, cats are susceptible to being infected by an HIV likevirus called feline immunodeficiency virus, or FIV.

正如人类和很多种类的猴子一样，猫也容易被一种名为猫类免疫缺陷病毒的类艾滋病毒的感染。

Like HIV, FIV makes cats sick by destroying their infection fighting T cells.

同艾滋病毒一样，猫类免疫缺陷病毒通过破坏猫的T细胞使它们患病。

Millions of cats die each year from FIV related diseases.

每年都有数百万的猫死于FIV相关的疾病。

The good news for cats, though, is that rhesus macaque monkeys have a gene known toblockinfection by FIV.

尽管如此，对猫而言，好消息是恒河猴体内有可以抵抗FIV感染的基因。

So scientists have experimented with inserting the macaque genes into cats with FIV, to studyboth how well it protects them against the virus and how well the genes are passed on to thecats'offspring.

因此，科学家们把恒河猴的基因注入猫体内，来研究这种基因是是否能很好地保护它们抵抗病毒并且是否能够传递给下一代的。

Which is where the jellyfish gene comes in.

这就是注入水母基因的作用之处。

The cats are also injected with a glow in the dark genefrom jellyfish to allow scientists to trackhow well the genes are passed on.

科学家们在猫体内注射水母能发光的基因来追踪基因的传递。

If the cats' offspring glow, then they've gotten both genes.

如果猫的后代同样能够发光，那么它们就获得了这两种基因。

So far, cats and their kittens who've received the monkey gene are doing well the monkeygeneseems to be doing its job to protect them from FIV.

迄今为止，拥有恒河猴基因的猫和它们的后代能和恒河猴一样，能够很好地抵抗FIV。

This type of gene therapy isn't ready for use in clinics to treat people with HIV or cats withFIV.

这种疗法目前还不够成熟，还不能临床应用来治疗艾滋病毒携带者或携带FIV的猫。

But the research will help scientists better understand how genes can be used to fight AIDSand otherviral diseases.

但是，这项研究将会帮助科学家更好的了解基因在治疗艾滋病和其他病毒性疾病中的作用。