2019年经济学人 治愈艾滋病:英国病人(2)

 

The newly reported patient, treated by Ravindra Gupta of University College, London, and his colleagues,

最新报道中的病人，由伦敦大学学院的Ravindra Gupta及同事进行治疗，

had Hodgkin's lymphoma and underwent a stem-cell transplant for this in 2016.

这名病人患有霍奇金氏淋巴瘤并且在2016年因此接受干细胞移植。

As in Mr Brown's case, the cell donor¹ had inherited the protective mutation² from both parents.

如布朗的案例一样，这名细胞捐赠者从父母那里继承了保护性突变。

Sixteen months later, as they describe in Nature, the patient's doctors withdrew the HIV-controlling drugs and watched.

16个月后，正如他们在《自然》期刊中所述，这名病人的医生撤回了控制HIV的药并进行观察。

There was no resurgence³ of the virus, as would be usual if those drugs were withdrawn⁴ from any other HIV patient.

病毒没有复苏，通常撤回其他HIV病人的用药后，病毒会再复苏。

Nor has there been any change in the patient's HIV status in the 18 months since the drugs' withdrawal⁶.

自停药以来的18个月内，病人体内的HIV状态也没有发生任何变化。

In cases like this doctors are loth to use the word “cured”, since the future is unpredictable

在类似案例中，医生都不愿使用“被治愈”这一词，因为未来不可测

and the mechanism⁷ involved serves only to break HIV's reproductive chain, not to purge⁸ the virus from the body entirely⁹.

而且其中涉及的机理仅起到了打破HIV再生链的作用，并非完全清除了体内的病毒。

They talk instead of patients being "in remission".

因而他们说病人在“缓解期”。

Nevertheless, the experience of the person who will probably come to be known as the London patient is important.

然而，这个可能将被称为伦敦病人的经历非常重要。

It shows that Mr Brown's case was not a fluke.

他的经历表明布朗的案例并非侥幸。

Which gives comfort to those working on the idea of editing protective mutations into stem cells drawn⁵ from people with HIV,

对于那些致力于将保护性突变编辑进HIV患者的干细胞中

and then returning the edited cells to the patient.

然后将干细胞输送回病人体内的工作人员而言，这给了他们安慰。

This would avoid the risks of rejection¹⁰ that come with transplants from donors¹¹.

这将避免捐赠者移植出现排斥的风险。

Most researchers in the field are proceeding¹² cautiously, testing their results on mice, and with some success.

该领域的大部分研究人员正在谨慎地继续在老鼠身上测试他们的结果，并且取得了一些成功。

But this is an area that can encourage overreach.

但这是一个可以鼓励超越的领域。

The gene-edited-baby scandal which happened in China late last year was, according to those involved,

据涉及者称，去年年底中国的基因编辑婴儿丑闻

an attempt to engineer the relevant mutation into people from birth.

是将相关突变设计至初生儿体内的一种尝试。

Such overreach aside, even if the editing of blood stem cells could be made to work reliably,

抛开这种超越不说，即便血干细胞的编辑实施可靠，

transplanting them back into people would probably remain a rare procedure—

将它们移植到人体中也可能是一个罕见的过程—

for the methods used to kill a patient's existing bone marrow¹³ make such transplantation dangerous in and of itself.

因为就其本身而言，用于杀死病人体内现有骨髓的方法让这种移植非常危险。

But it would at least be available as a treatment of last resort for those with forms of HIV that have developed resistance to drugs.

但它至少可以用作抗药HIV病人的最后治疗手段。

And that would save some lives.

这将拯救一些人的性命。

1 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。

2 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。

3 resurgence   

n.再起，复活，再现

参考例句：

• A resurgence of his grief swept over Nim.悲痛又涌上了尼姆的心头。
• Police say drugs traffickers are behind the resurgence of violence.警方说毒贩是暴力活动重新抬头的罪魁祸首。

4 withdrawn   

vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出

参考例句：

• Our force has been withdrawn from the danger area.我们的军队已从危险地区撤出。
• All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries.一切外国军队都应撤回本国去。

5 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

6 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

7 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

8 purge   

n.整肃，清除，泻药，净化；vt.净化，清除，摆脱；vi.清除，通便，腹泻，变得清洁

参考例句：

• The new president carried out a purge of disloyal army officers.新总统对不忠诚的军官进行了清洗。
• The mayoral candidate has promised to purge the police department.市长候选人答应清洗警察部门。

9 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

10 rejection   

n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃

参考例句：

• He decided not to approach her for fear of rejection.他因怕遭拒绝决定不再去找她。
• The rejection plunged her into the dark depths of despair.遭到拒绝使她陷入了绝望的深渊。

11 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》

12 proceeding   

n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报

参考例句：

• This train is now proceeding from Paris to London.这次列车从巴黎开往伦敦。
• The work is proceeding briskly.工作很有生气地进展着。

13 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。