医学考博题源报刊选读：Nipping ageing in the bud(1)

医学考博题源报刊选读：Nipping ageing in the bud(1)

选自医学考博题源报刊New Scientist2023年5月20日刊封面文章，本次华慧考博节选内容只阐述了Senolytic drugs的背景信息，即衰老的原因及其对策——衰老细胞，由此说明了三项研究突破，即细胞分裂衰老现象（即内部因素）、衰老与外界因素、以及衰老细胞与抗衰老的关系。

Senolytic drugs that promise to “treat” ageing are already being trialled in humans. Can they live up to the hype, asks Graham Lawton.

I come from a family with dodgy knees. My dad, 79, has had two complete knee replacements and my sister needs one at the age of just 54. My left knee hurts when I walk downstairs and clicks when I bend it—classic signs of the age-related disease osteoarthritis, caused by wear and tear on the cartilage cushioning the joint.

我的家族有膝盖问题病史。父亲今年79岁，已经做了两次完全的膝关节置换术，我妹妹54岁的时候需要做一次。我的左膝下楼的时候会疼，弯曲的时候会发出咔哒声，这是骨关节炎的典型症状，这种病与年龄有关，由缓冲关节的软骨磨损引起。

By the time I get to the knee-replacement stage, however, I might not need to go under the knife. Instead, I hope to be able to swallow a few pills every so often and feel my knee pain disappear.

然而，当我需要接受膝关节置换时，可能不需要动刀。相反，我希望间隔服药，就能感受膝盖疼痛消失。

Osteoarthritis isn’t just down to wear and tear but also an accumulation of some nasty cells, which attack the knee joint from within. They are called senescent cells—old or run-down cells that have reached the end of their lives or suffered irreversible damage. They ought to die and yet they don't, instead lurking in tissue, causing trouble.

造成骨关节炎的原因不仅仅是磨损，也是一些有害细胞累积从内部攻击了膝关节。它们被称为衰老细胞，即衰老或衰竭的细胞，意味着已经到了生命的尽头或遭受了不可逆转的损伤。它们本应死亡，但却没有，而是潜伏在组织中，制造麻烦。

Senescent cells are normally cleared out by the immune system, though that goes wrong during ageing and they accumulate, dripping poison into their surroundings and turning other cells rogue. They are a leading cause of numerous age-related conditions, not just in the knees but also in the heart, liver, muscles and brain.

正常情况下，衰老细胞会被免疫系统清除。但随着年龄的增长，免疫系统出错，衰老细胞便会累积起来，将毒素渗入周围环境，使其他细胞变得不正常。它们是许多与年龄有关的疾病的主要原因，不仅在膝盖上，而且在心脏、肝脏、肌肉和大脑上。

No surprise, then, that researchers have been eyeing senescent cells for many years as a juicy target for efforts to slow, halt or even reverse ageing. Now, we have numerous drugs in the pipeline and some tantalizing results from human trials. There is even hope that, by taking out senescent cells, other causes of ageing will evaporate too.

因此，毫不奇怪，研究人员多年来一直在关注衰老细胞，将其作为减缓、停止甚至逆转衰老的诱人目标。现在，我们有许多药物正在研发中，人体试验也取得了一些诱人的结果。甚至有希望，通过清除衰老细胞，其他导致衰老的因素也会消失。

Cell senescence was discovered in 1961 when Leonard Hayflick and Paul Moorhead at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, discovered that human cells will divide no more than 55 times in cell culture.

1961年，宾夕法尼亚州费城威斯塔尔研究所的伦纳德·海弗利克和保罗·穆尔黑德发现细胞衰老现象，且人类细胞在细胞培养中分裂不超过55次。

This so-called Hayflick limit was later found to be linked to the shortening of telomeres, caps of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that prevent them from falling apart. Each time a cell copies its chromosomes and divides, its telomeres shorten slightly, like a countdown. Once they have worn away completely, the cell either dies or enters a twilight-zone, no longer dividing but still alive. This fate became known as cell senescence.

这一所谓的海弗利克极限（即细胞分裂次数）后来被发现与端粒缩短有关，端粒是染色体末端防止它们分裂的DNA帽。每当细胞复制染色体并分裂时，它的端粒就会像倒计时一样略微缩短。一旦它们完全磨损，细胞要么死亡，要么进入一个模糊区，不再分裂，但仍然活着。这一结局被称为细胞衰老。

Senescence was also found to be triggered by external insults too, such as DNA damage from UV radiation or chemicals, physical injuries and attacks by viruses or bacteria. In1979, Edward Schneider, then at the US National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Maryland, discovered that senescent cells are present in living humans and become more abundant with age. Other researchers linked senescent cells with various age-related conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, liver cirrhosis and renal and cardiovascular disease.

研究还发现，衰老也会由外界的伤害引发，比如紫外线辐射或化学物质造成的DNA损伤、身体损伤以及病毒或细菌的攻击。1979年，当时在马里兰州巴尔的摩市的美国国家衰老研究所工作的爱德华·施耐德(Edward Schneider)发现，衰老细胞存在于活人体内，并且随着年龄的增长而增多。其他研究人员将衰老细胞与各种与年龄相关的疾病联系起来，包括阿尔茨海默病、骨质疏松症、糖尿病、肝硬化、肾病和心血管疾病。

Another key breakthrough came in 2004, when a team led by Janakiraman Krishnamurthy at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill showed that senescent cells accumulate more slowly in calorie-restricted mice, which are known to live longer. It looked as though senescent cells were both a cause of ageing and an interesting target for anti-ageing treatments. That prompted James Kirkland at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to hypothesise that destroying senescent cells may be a route to rejuvenation.

2004年取得了另一项关键突破，当时北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的Janakiraman Krishnamurthy领导的一个研究小组表明，限制了卡路里的小鼠体内衰老细胞积累更慢，寿命更长。似乎衰老细胞既是衰老的原因，也是抗衰老治疗的有趣目标。这促使明尼苏达州罗切斯特市梅奥诊所的詹姆斯·柯克兰(James Kirkland)假设，破坏衰老细胞可能是恢复活力的一种手段。

【中英思维差异】

Another key breakthrough came in 2004, when a team led by Janakiraman Krishnamurthy at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill showed that senescent cells accumulate more slowly in calorie-restricted mice, which are known to live longer.

2004年取得了另一项关键突破，当时北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的Janakiraman Krishnamurthy领导的一个研究小组表明，限制了卡路里的小鼠体内衰老细胞积累更慢，寿命更长。

【解读】

从上述中英对照文本可体会到的差异在于，英文强调结果，而中文可以“无主”、先背景。尤其第一句的翻译可以联想到16年医学考博英语中真题摘要原文第一段中的“未来20年或30年，医学将发生很大的变化”，这个句子中的“医学”是“发生”这一动词的发出者吗？显然不是。所以对这句话的翻译必然不能逐字对译，如果我们将“医学”与上述句子中的“breakthrough”对应起来，那么动词的选择上本质上是一种拟人修辞，在这里我们可以找什么动词和“变化”搭配呢？比如“经历、遭受”；如果换种思维，将医学理解成一个领域，那么本质上它是地点状语，这个时候句子的主语应当改为“变化”，这时动词“发生”可以与之构成“主谓”结构。因此，对于这样一句话的翻译，有以下两种参考方式：

Medicine will experience/undergo great changes in the next 20 or 30 years/two or three decades.

Great changes will take place in medicine in the next 20 or 30 years/two or three decades.

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