【英语语言学习】疫苗可以用来诊治毒品上瘾？

Scientists have developed an experimental vaccine¹ to treat individuals addicted³ to the drug heroin⁴. Such a treatment would be a major step forward for both public health and safety.

 

As we hear from Avi Arditti, heroin dependency not only destroys human lives, but fuels a violent drug trade.

 

An estimated 20 million people around the world are addicted to heroin and other opiate drugs -- all products of the opium⁵ poppy plant. Their drug dependency and use of unclean needles puts heroin users at risk of a number of diseases.

Recovering heroin addicts⁶ use art therapy and other methods to rebuild their lives at a sober house in Zanzibar, February 9, 2012.

It is difficult to keep heroin addicts away from the drug even after they have received treatment to help them end their dependency. But the experimental vaccine may prevent addiction⁷ even if a user is offered the drug after leaving a treatment center.

 

The vaccine is the work of Kim Janda and his team at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. It tricks the body’s natural defenses for fighting disease into thinking heroin is harmful, like a bacterium⁸ or virus. The vaccine causes the immune system to produce antibodies that keep heroin from reaching the brain.

 

“So, it just, it creates like a wall to block the drug from entering the brain, the pleasure centers.”

 

Professor Janda is both a chemist and an immunologist. He says developing a vaccine against heroin has been difficult because the body can quickly change the drug into several byproducts. These include morphine -- the drug that produces the feeling that heroin users desire. 

 

Researchers had to develop a vaccine that would help the body’s immune system recognize and fight those chemicals before they reach the brain. To do that, they experimented on heroin-addicted rats. These animals also had an unlimited⁹ supply of the drug.

 

Dr. Janda says the rats were kept away from heroin for one month. That is about the amount of time required for a human addict² to complete a drug treatment program.

 

Then, researchers put the rats into two groups, giving both groups as much water filled with heroin as they wanted. But half the rats had been given the experimental vaccine. Researchers found that the vaccine had a clear and measureable effect on those animals.

 

“What happens if you don’t vaccinate¹⁰ them they re-escalate and, and double the amount of intake¹¹. In, in the case of the ((rats given the)) vaccine, they completely don’t recognize the heroin at all and stop taking it.”

 

None of the vaccinated¹² rats became addicted to heroin, even after being re-exposed to the drug.

 

The National Institute on Drug Abuse helped to pay for the research. David Shurtleff is the acting¹³ deputy director of the agency. He warns that a heroin vaccine is not a complete cure. He says it would have to be used as part of a treatment program that also helps drug addicts change their behavior.

 

Researchers at the Scripps Institute are now looking for financing to pay for tests of the vaccine on humans, possibly by later this year.

 

I’m Avi Arditti.

 

From “King Heroin,” by James Brown:

All through your sentence you’ve become resolved to your fate 

Hear now, young man and woman 

I’ll be waitin’ at the gate 

And don’t be afraid, don’t run, I’m not chased

Sure my name is Heroin, and you’ll be back for a taste

 

James Brown:

Behold, you’re hooked, your foot is in the stirrup 

And make haste, mount the steed and ride him well 

For the white horse of heroin will ride you to Hell, to Hell 

Will ride you to Hell…

1 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

2 addict   

v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人

参考例句：

• He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博，最终输掉了全部家产。
• He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。

3 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

4 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

5 opium   

n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的

参考例句：

• That man gave her a dose of opium.那男人给了她一剂鸦片。
• Opium is classed under the head of narcotic.鸦片是归入麻醉剂一类的东西。

6 addicts   

有…瘾的人( addict的名词复数 )； 入迷的人

参考例句：

• a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
• There is counseling to help Internet addicts?even online. 有咨询机构帮助网络沉迷者。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

7 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

8 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

9 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

10 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

11 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

12 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

13 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。