研究人员探索对抗蛔虫感染的新途径

    Researchers in Ireland and England may have discovered a new way to fight roundworm parasites.
    爱尔兰和英国研究人员可能发现了一种对抗蛔虫寄生虫的新途径。

    The researchers say they identified a method that could possibly turn an animal at risk for the disease into one that can fight the infection. Their findings were published in PLOS, the Public Library of Science.
    研究人员表示,他们确定了一种办法,也许可以让存在患上该病风险的动物变成能够对抗感染。该研究结果发表在《科学公共图书馆》期刊上。

    More than 800 million people around the world are infected with the parasite. The highest infection rates are in parts of Asia, south-central Latin America and Africa, south of the Sahara.
    全球有超过8亿人感染了这种寄生虫。感染率最高的地区为亚洲部分地区、拉丁美洲中南部以及撒哈拉以南非洲地区。

    The World Health Organization says roundworm is one of many neglected diseases in warm climates. In other words, not much research is being done to stop these diseases.
    世界卫生组织表示,蛔虫是气候温暖地区众多被忽视的疾病之一。换句话说,人们没有进行太多研究来阻止这些疾病。

    Roundworm is the most common of three diseases transmitted through soil. Most humans infected with roundworm do not show signs of the disease. People only realize they are infected after the parasite leaves the body in the person's waste or vomit.
    蛔虫是三种最常见的通过土壤传播的疾病之一。大多数感染者不会表现出患有此病的迹象。只有在这种寄生虫通过排泄物或呕吐物排出体外时,人们才会意识到自己被感染。

    Fertilized roundworm eggs are left in the soil from human waste. When the eggs enter the body, they hatch in the intestine. The roundworm larvae then move into the liver where they grow larger. They then travel through the bloodstream into the lungs. After a few days, the worms leave the lungs and enter the throat, where they are either swallowed or expelled from the body.
    蛔虫受精卵从人体粪便中残留到土壤中。当这些受精卵进入人体,它们会在肠道中孵化。随后这些蛔虫幼虫进入肝脏继续长大。然后它们通过血流进入肺部。几天之后,这些蠕虫离开肺部进入喉咙,它们在这里被吞食或是排出体外。

    If they return to the intestines, the female worms can produce up to 200,000 eggs a day. The eggs are deposited into the soil when a person defecates. This restarts the cycle of infection.
    如果它们重回肠道,母虫每天可以产生20万个卵。这些卵在人体排便时沉积到土壤中。这将重新启动感染周期。

    Roundworms can be especially harmful to children. Adult worms can live in the body for up to two years, blocking the intestines. The larvae can also cause breathing problems when they enter the lungs.
    蛔虫对儿童尤为有害。成虫可以在人体内生活长达两年,阻塞肠道。幼虫在进入肺部时还会引起呼吸困难。

    The WHO fights the parasite by "deworming" people who live in areas with high rates of infection. Patients are given strong medicines designed to kill the parasites.
    世界卫生组织通过为高感染率地区的人们驱虫来对抗这种寄生虫。患者会服下各种旨在消灭这种寄生虫的强力药物。

    Graham Medley is a professor of Infectious Disease Modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He noted that deworming is effective at stopping the disease from spreading, but it does not end the health threat.
    Graham Medley是伦敦大学卫生与热带医学学院传染病模拟学教授。他指出,驱虫在阻止该疾病的传播上有效,但是这并未能消除这种健康威胁。

    His comments were published in the British medical journal The Lancet.
    他的见解发表在英国医学杂志《柳叶刀》上。

    Medley told VOA that "roundworms are a major public health problem in low-income countries, and having a drug that prevents infection would be a major advance."
    Medley对美国之音表示,“蛔虫是低收入国家一项重要的健康问题,获得有一种防止感染的药物将是一大进步。”

    Researchers have found that some people are more likely to be infected with roundworm than others. But it is costly to study humans, so researchers use mice that have the same chance of being infected. When these animals are infected, a larger number of the parasites enter their lungs than enter those of mice that are resistant to the parasites.
    研究人员表示,有些人更容易感染蛔虫。但是研究人类代价不菲,因此研究人员使用具有同样感染几率的老鼠。当这些动物被感染时,进入它们肺部的寄生虫数量远远多于能够抵抗这种寄生虫的小鼠。

    Earlier research suggested that the livers of these two genetically-different mice must be different.
    早期的研究表明这两种基因不同的老鼠的肝脏肯定不同。

    Jim Carolan works at Maynooth University in Ireland. He told VOA that humans should be able to stop the parasite from entering our bodies.
    吉姆·卡罗兰(Jim Carolan)就职于爱尔兰梅努斯大学。他对美国之音表示,人类应该能够阻止这种寄生虫进入人体。

    "But it doesn't," he said, "because the [roundworms] have evolved ways to evade or suppress the system."
    他说,“但是并没有,因为蛔虫已经进化出逃避或压制该系统的方法。”

    Carolan wanted to learn how the organisms did that. So he studied the liver proteins of the two genetically-different mice. He and his team found that the liver cells of resistant mice had more copies of a protein than the mice that were more likely to be infected. The proteins create a chemical which the researchers believe could be toxic to the parasitic cells. But they are not sure.
    卡罗兰想要了解这种生物如何做到这点。所以他研究了这两种基因不同的老鼠的肝脏蛋白质。他和他的研究小组发现,抗性小鼠的肝细胞比更容易感染的小鼠多出多份某种蛋白质。研究人员认为这种蛋白质产生的一种化学物质可能对寄生虫卵来说有毒。但是他们尚并不确定。

    Carolan notes that more research must be done before drugs can be developed and tested on humans. But he said the research is "pointing us in a direction that we need to focus on."
    卡罗兰指出,开发出药物并在人体身上测试还需要做更多研究。但是他表示,该研究指出了我们需要关注的方向。

    I'm Christopher Jones-Cruise.
    我是克里斯托弗·琼斯 - 克鲁斯。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利,未经授权请勿转载,违者必究!)