VOA常速英语2013--粪菌移植可治肠道疾病

 

Fecal Transplants Used to Cure Intestinal¹ Disorders³  粪菌移植可治肠道疾病

粪菌移植是指将健康人粪便中的功能菌群，移植到患者胃肠道内，重建具有正常功能的肠道菌群，实现肠道及肠道外疾病的诊疗。

The process involves rebalancing a sick intestine⁴ with fecal microbes from a healthy donor⁵.  

Donor animals

In the United States, this unusual treatment was first inspired by animal doctors.

At Colorado State University in Fort Collins, veterinarians use donor animals to cure digestive disorders in other animals, not with a kidney donation or a blood transfusion⁶, but with healthy gut⁷ microbes. One donor is a black-and-white cow named Hershey.

“We probably bring her in twice a week to provide rumen fluid for treating our patients," said Rob Callan, who harvests microbes from Hershey’s stomach on a regular basis. "She’s been here eight years. That’s got to be close to at least 800 patients.”

He gathers the microbes directly from her stomach through a small plastic porthole in her side.  

“We often get asked whether or not it hurts," said Callan. "After it’s in and it’s healed, they don’t feel it any differently than normal skin.”  

As Hershey calmly watches, Callan opens the porthole to reveal what’s left of her latest meal - a mass of warm, wet, stinky grass. He says its potent⁸ odor comes from microbes digesting the grass. These microbes can counteract⁹ the toxins¹⁰ of harmful gut microbes, so to gather a “donation,” Callan and his team insert a tube through the porthole and siphon out the greenish liquid.  Animal doctor Jenifer Gold says it can then be transfused¹¹ into another cow through a tube down its throat.  

“You’re taking the tube and going down into the stomach, and from the stomach it will get passed down to the GI tract¹²," Gold said.

There are also beneficial microbes at the other end of the GI - or gastro intestinal - tract.

“If you have a horse that has very bad diarrhea, you actually get a healthy horse’s feces," Gold said. "You turn it into a mush so you can pump it through.”

Fecal transplants for humans

For generations, veterinarians have used stool from healthy animals to treat a variety of intestinal disorders in livestock¹³. Half a century ago, their success inspired a Denver doctor to try the procedure to help people.

“That was 1958. That’s when the first published experience with fecal transplants was done,” said Steve Freeman, a gastroenterologist at the University of Colorado Medical School.

Dr. Ben Eisman “transplanted” normal human feces into four men who had a deadly intestinal infection in the 1950s. “All four survived and left the hospital actually fairly quickly. Even though they’d been in the intensive care unit and not too far from dying just days earlier. So it was pretty dramatic.”

However, the procedure did not catch on, probably because of what Freeman calls the “yuck” factor.

"The yuck factor has always been a very big drawback to this therapy,” he said.

Overcoming the 'yuck' factor

Two years ago, Freeman overcame the yuck factor to cure a digestive disorder² that infects hundreds of thousands in the United States and is increasing worldwide. It kills 14,000 Americans every year. The infection is C. diff colitis.

Charmayne Cesal lives in Wyoming, where her doctors tried to kill off her C. diff with a powerful antibiotic¹⁴ called Vancomycin. Cesal says whenever her prescription¹⁵ ended, her C. diff roared back.

Thinking a fecal transplant might be more effective, her doctors referred her to Freeman. He consulted the handful of doctors in the U.S. who use stool transplants to introduce healthy microbes into their patients’ intestinal tracks.

Some infuse liquefied stool into the stomach through a nose tube. Others use enemas, or a colonoscopy, a medical procedure where a tube is inserted into the colon¹⁶. Freeman opted¹⁷ for a colonoscopy for Cesal and then went looking for an appropriate donor.

“They’re screened with cultures of their stool to look for C. diff and other enteric pathogens and parasites," Freeman said. "They’re screened with blood tests to be checked for infectious diseases such as hepatitis, HIV, and syphilis.”

Fecal transplant patient

Cesal’s donor was her husband and she became Denver’s first modern-day fecal transplant patient.

“I’ve not had any problems since," Cesal said. "Such a simple thing to get rid of something so horrible.”

Freeman has now done more than two dozen fecal transplants. He says studies from Europe match his own observations that they work better than antibiotics¹⁸.

“The transplants tend to be successful anywhere from 85 percent to 90 percent of the time," he said. "Whereas once a person has relapsed on Vancomycin two times or more, the likelihood tends to be less than 50 percent.”

Yet fecal transplant is such an unusual procedure that earlier this year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) instituted stringent¹⁹ restrictions²⁰ on doctors who wanted to do them. With the growing number of successful procedures, the FDA relaxed its requirements in July, though they urge more studies of the therapy. 

1 intestinal   

adj.肠的；肠壁；肠道细菌

参考例句：

• A few other conditions are in high intestinal obstruction. 其它少数情况是高位肠梗阻。 来自辞典例句
• This complication has occasionally occurred following the use of intestinal antiseptics. 这种并发症偶而发生在使用肠道抗菌剂上。 来自辞典例句

2 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

3 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 intestine   

adj.内部的；国内的；n.肠

参考例句：

• This vitamin is absorbed through the walls of the small intestine.这种维生素通过小肠壁被吸收。
• The service productivity is the function,including external efficiency,intestine efficiency and capacity efficiency.服务业的生产率是一个包含有外部效率、内部效率和能力效率的函数。

5 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。

6 transfusion   

n.输血，输液

参考例句：

• She soon came to her senses after a blood transfusion.输血后不久她就苏醒了。
• The doctor kept him alive by a blood transfusion.医生靠输血使他仍然活着。

7 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

8 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

9 counteract   

vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消

参考例句：

• The doctor gave him some medicine to counteract the effect of the poison.医生给他些药解毒。
• Our work calls for mutual support.We shouldn't counteract each other's efforts.工作要互相支持，不要互相拆台。

10 toxins   

n.毒素( toxin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The seas have been used as a receptacle for a range of industrial toxins. 海洋成了各种有毒工业废料的大容器。
• Most toxins are naturally excreted from the body. 大部分毒素被自然排出体外。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 transfused   

v.输（血或别的液体）( transfuse的过去式和过去分词 )；渗透；使…被灌输或传达

参考例句：

• He transfused his own courage into his men. 他用自己的勇气鼓舞了士兵。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The professor transfused his enthusiasm for research into his students. 教授把自己的研究热忱移注给学生。 来自辞典例句

12 tract   

n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林)

参考例句：

• He owns a large tract of forest.他拥有一大片森林。
• He wrote a tract on this subject.他曾对此写了一篇短文。

13 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

14 antibiotic   

adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素

参考例句：

• The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
• Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。

15 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

16 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

17 opted   

v.选择，挑选( opt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was co-opted onto the board. 她获增选为董事会成员。
• After graduating she opted for a career in music. 毕业后她选择了从事音乐工作。

18 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

19 stringent   

adj.严厉的；令人信服的；银根紧的

参考例句：

• Financiers are calling for a relaxation of these stringent measures.金融家呼吁对这些严厉的措施予以放宽。
• Some of the conditions in the contract are too stringent.合同中有几项条件太苛刻。

20 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制