新闻周刊:非洲基因对癌症研究很重要(1)

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Cancer Scientists Have Ignored African DNA¹ in the Search for Cures

癌症科学家在寻找治疗方法时忽略了非洲的DNA

BY JESSICA WAPNER

作者：杰西卡·韦普纳

Charles Rotimi first realized the future was passing him by around 2005.

查尔斯·罗蒂米在2005年左右第一次意识到未来正在离他而去。

The Human Genome Project had recently finished spelling out an entire set of human DNA.

人类基因组计划最近完成了一套完整的人类DNA的复写。

Following that breakthrough, scientists in six countries across the globe had begun collecting blood samples to find genes² responsible for various conditions, including serious diseases, which could lead to treatments.

在这一突破之后，全球6个国家的科学家开始收集血液样本，以寻找治疗各种疾病的基因，包括用于治疗严重疾病的基因。

And Rotimi, who was leading that collection effort in Africa, had the sick feeling that history was repeating itself.

而在非洲领导负责这项工作的罗蒂米，深忧于历史正在重演。

He wasn't concerned about himself so much as his homeland.

与其说他关心他自己，不如说他关心他的祖国。

In the past, African patients have had poor access to medical advances, even as scientists use them as research subjects.

过去，即使科学家将非洲患者作为研究对象，他们也很难获得医疗进步。

Rotimi worried that genetics might again exploit the 1 billion people sub-Saharan Africa, ignoring their need for treatments for HIV, tuberculosis⁴, malaria⁵ and cancer.

罗蒂米担心遗传学可能再次利用撒哈拉以南非洲的10亿人口，而忽略了他们对艾滋病、结核病、疟疾和癌症治疗的需求。

"The genomic revolution was going to fly over Africa," he says, "and tomorrow’s medicine will not work for all."

“基因组上空展开，”他说，“未来的药不会对所有人都有效。”

His concern was well founded.

他的担忧并不是空穴来风。

Over the next few years, scientists came out with a frenzy⁶ of discoveries about our DNA that could possibly lead to new treatments for diabetes⁷, cancer, psychiatric illnesses and other serious diseases.

在接下来的几年里，科学家们对我们的DNA进行了大量的研究，这些发现可能会为糖尿病、癌症、精神疾病和其他严重疾病的治疗提供新的方法。

But they were drawing from a small slice of the world: Nearly all of the published work was based on populations with European ancestry⁸.

但他们的研究来自世界的一小部分:几乎所有出版的作品都是基于欧洲血统的人群。

By 2009, fewer than 1 percent of the several hundred genome investigations⁹ included Africans.

截止到2009年，在几百个基因组调查中，只有不到1%的调查包括非洲人。

The genomics revolution soon began to sputter¹⁰.

基因组革命很快就开始了。

Being able to know the exact genetic³ makeup¹¹ of each patient was to bring a new era of treatments tailored for each individual.

了解每位患者确切的基因组成，将会带来一个新时代：为每位患者量身订造治疗方案。

But doing so depends on finding minute variations in our DNA that correlate with the occurrence of disease or bad drug reactions.

但是否能做到这一点，取决于我们DNA中与疾病或不良药物反应相关的细微变化。

This task requires the full range of genetic variation among as many humans as possible.

这项任务需要尽可能多的人类中的完整基因变异。

Otherwise, genomics research is like a search party that circles the same few trees looking for signs of the killer¹² rather than spreading out through the entire woods.

否则，基因组学研究就像一个搜索小组，在相同的几棵树周围搜寻凶手的踪迹，而不是在整个树林中展开。

The richness of African genomes is a product of the evolution of our species.

非洲基因组的丰富是我们物种进化的结果。

Modern Homo sapiens originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

约20万年前，现代智人起源于非洲。

About 100,000 years later, 1,600 or so men and women—from a population of at least 20,000 and likely much more—left the continent and spread around the globe, eventually reaching Europe and, more recently, the Americas.

约10万年前，从至少有2万或是更多的人口，只剩下共约1600名男性和女性，离开欧洲大陆，传播到世界各地，最终到达欧洲，再后来到达美洲。

"In other words," wrote University of Washington geneticist Mary-Claire King and colleagues in a 2017 commentary, "about 99 percent of our evolutionary¹³ experience as a species was spent in Africa."

“换句话说，”华盛顿大学遗传学家玛丽-克莱尔·金及其同事在2017年发表的一篇评论文章中写道，“我们99%的进化经验都是在非洲物种进化的结果。”

Whatever genetic diversity existed across the continent until then was almost entirely¹⁴ left behind when that small group emigrated—and it is there still, hidden in the genes of each African.

在此之前，无论整个非洲大陆存在何种遗传多样性，当这个小群体移民时，几乎都被完全抛在了身后——但这种物种多样性仍然存在，隐藏在每个非洲人的基因中。

That is partly why Rotimi was so dismayed by the exclusion¹⁵ of Africa from genomics.

这就是为什么罗蒂米对非洲被排除在基因组学之外感到如此沮丧的部分原因。

"We are all Africans beneath our skin," he says.

“在皮肤下，我们都是非洲人，”他说。

More and more scientists are coming around to Rotimi's view—

越来越多的科学家开始接受罗蒂米的观点——

that Africa contains one of the greatest weapons in the quest to combat cancer: the DNA of its people.

在与癌症作斗争的过程中，非洲拥有最伟大的武器之一：人类的DNA。

1 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

2 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

3 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

4 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

5 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

6 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

7 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

8 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

9 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

10 sputter   

n.喷溅声；v.喷溅

参考例句：

• The engine gave a sputter and died.引擎发出一阵劈啪声就熄火了。
• Engines sputtered to life again.发动机噼啪噼啪地重新开动了。

11 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

12 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

13 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

14 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。

15 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。