時差N小時:熒光貓 猴子和艾滋

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

你聽說過關(guān)于水母、猴子和在熒光貓的事情嗎?

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.

事實上，這不是一個玩笑：科學家們正在試驗研究防御艾滋病的方法。他們向貓體內(nèi)注入從恒河猴和水母體內(nèi)獲得的基因，水母的基因能使貓發(fā)出綠色或紅色的光。

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

你可能會好奇，熒光貓、猴子的基因和治療艾滋有什么關(guān)系?

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

正如人類和很多種類的猴子一樣，貓也容易被一種名為貓類免疫缺陷病毒的類艾滋病毒的感染。

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

同艾滋病毒一樣，貓類免疫缺陷病毒通過破壞貓的T細胞使它們患病。

Millions of cats die each year from FIV related diseases.

每年都有數(shù)百萬的貓死于FIV相關(guān)的疾病。

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

盡管如此，對貓而言，好消息是恒河猴體內(nèi)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，科學家們把恒河猴的基因注入貓體內(nèi)，來研究這種基因是是否能很好地保護它們抵抗病毒并且是否能夠傳遞給下一代的。

Which is where the jellyfish gene comes in.

這就是注入水母基因的作用之處。

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

科學家們在貓體內(nèi)注射水母能發(fā)光的基因來追蹤基因的傳遞。

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

如果貓的后代同樣能夠發(fā)光，那么它們就獲得了這兩種基因。

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.

迄今為止，擁有恒河猴基因的貓和它們的后代能和恒河猴一樣，能夠很好地抵抗FIV。

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

這種療法目前還不夠成熟，還不能臨床應用來治療艾滋病毒攜帶者或攜帶FIV的貓。

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

但是，這項研究將會幫助科學家更好的了解基因在治療艾滋病和其他病毒性疾病中的作用。