2019年经济学人 治愈艾滋病:英国病人(1)

 

Established HIV infection is easy to control but impossible to cure. Or almost impossible.

已确定的艾滋病（HIV）感染很容易控制，但不可治愈。或者说几乎不可治愈。

The exception seems to be Timothy Brown, a man often referred to as the Berlin patient.

蒂莫西·布朗似乎是个例外，他经常被称为柏林病人。

In 2006, after a decade of successfully suppressing his infection with antiretroviral drugs,

2006年，抗反转录病毒药物成功抑制住了他的感染十年后，

Mr Brown developed an unrelated blood cancer, acute myeloid leukaemia.

布朗患上了一种不相关的血癌—急性髓性白血病。

To treat this life-threatening condition he opted¹, the following year, for a blood-stem-cell transplant.

为了治疗这种有生命威胁的疾病，第二年他决定做血干细胞移植手术。

And, at the same time, he volunteered as a guinea pig for an experimental anti-HIV treatment, which worked.

与此同时，他自愿成为试验性抗艾滋病病毒治疗的小白鼠，而这种治疗起作用了。

Now, a team of doctors in London have reported a similar case.

现在伦敦的一组医生也报道了相同的案例。

Blood-stem-cell transplantation is an established, though extreme, treatment for various sorts of blood cancer.

血干细胞移植，虽然极端，但它是一种已确定的血癌治疗方法。

Stem cells are the precursors² from which particular tissues grow.

干细胞是特定组织生长处的前体细胞。

Blood-stem-cell transplantation involves using drugs (backed up, in Mr Brown's case, by radiotherapy)

血干细胞移植需要使用药物（在布朗的案例中是通过放射疗法）

to kill a patient's natural blood-producing tissue, the bone marrow³, and then transfusing⁴ in new stem cells from a donor⁵.

杀死病人的自带造血组织—骨髓，然后输入一名捐赠者的新干细胞。

So far, so normal. But Mr Brown, at the suggestion of his doctors,

到目前为止，一切正常。但布朗在医生的建议下

chose from among the 267 possible tissue-matched donors⁶ one who had inherited from both parents a mutation⁷ that,

从267名组织可能匹配的捐赠者中进行选择，这些捐赠者从他们父母身上继承了一种突变，

in healthy people, prevents HIV infection in the first place. (The mutation in question alters one of the proteins the virus attaches itself to when entering a cell.)

在健康人体内，这种突变首先就可以预防HIV感染。（上述突变，在病毒进入一个细胞时改变了病毒附着的蛋白质之一。）

After two such transplants Mr Brown was cleared of the leukaemia and, as far as it is possible to tell, HIV had stopped replicating⁸ in his body.

经过两次移植后，布朗体内的白血病被清除，或许可以说，他体内的HIV病毒已经停止复制了。

1 opted   

v.选择，挑选( opt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was co-opted onto the board. 她获增选为董事会成员。
• After graduating she opted for a career in music. 毕业后她选择了从事音乐工作。

2 precursors   

n.先驱( precursor的名词复数 )；先行者；先兆；初期形式

参考例句：

• Phenyl (or polyphenyl) substituted epoxides serve as excellent precursors to phenyl (or diphenyl) carbenes. 某些苯代（或多苯）环氧乙烷是制取带苯环（或二苯）碳烯的极好原料。 来自辞典例句
• Note the presence of megakaryocytes, erythroid islands, and granulocytic precursors. 可见巨核细胞，红细胞岛和粒细胞前体细胞。 来自互联网

3 marrow   

n.骨髓；精华；活力

参考例句：

• It was so cold that he felt frozen to the marrow. 天气太冷了，他感到寒冷刺骨。
• He was tired to the marrow of his bones.他真是累得筋疲力尽了。

4 transfusing   

v.输（血或别的液体）( transfuse的现在分词 )；渗透；使…被灌输或传达

参考例句：

5 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

6 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 mutation   

n.变化，变异，转变

参考例句：

• People who have this mutation need less sleep than others.有这种突变的人需要的睡眠比其他人少。
• So far the discussion has centered entirely around mutation in the strict sense.到目前为止，严格来讲，讨论完全集中于围绕突变问题上。

8 replicating   

复制( replicate的现在分词 )； 重复； 再造； 再生

参考例句：

• Applications create these partitions for storing and replicating data. 应用程序创建这些分区用来储存和复制数据。
• The closest real things to these creatures were bits of self-replicating RNA. 最贴近这些造物的实物是能做一点微不足道的自复制的核糖核酸。