蚂蚁能嗅出人体内的癌细胞

时间:2022-03-11 08:37:11

(单词翻译:单击)

都说狗鼻子灵,但是科学家近日发现,蚂蚁的鼻子比狗还灵。只需短时间的训练,蚂蚁就能迅速识别出人体的癌细胞,甚至还能区分不同癌细胞,未来或可大量应用于临床诊断。
 
Ants have the ability to sniff1 out cancerous cells in humans, a new study has discovered, suggesting they could be used for cancer diagnosis2 in future.
一项新研究发现,蚂蚁能嗅出人体内的癌细胞,这表明蚂蚁可用于未来对癌症的诊断。
 
Researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) discovered that ant species Formica fusca has a well developed sense of smell.
法国国家科学研究中心的研究人员发现,丝光褐林蚁的嗅觉非常发达。
 
It was able to differentiate3 cancerous cells from healthy cells in humans, thanks to their sense of smell, limited trials revealed. But more clinical tests must be carried out before they could be used in clinical settings like hospitals, the team said.
有限的试验显示,这种蚂蚁的嗅觉超强,能够将人体的癌细胞同健康细胞区分开来。但是该研究团队表示,还需要进行更多临床测试才能将丝光褐林蚁用于医院等临床环境中。
 
They suggest that in future, ants could turn out to be better at dogs when it comes to locating cancerous cells in humans.
研究人员指出,未来在识别人体癌细胞方面,蚂蚁可能会比狗做得更出色。
 
To conduct their research, the scientists performed tests with 36 ants, smelling cells under a laboratory setting.
为了开展这一研究,科学家用36只蚂蚁进行了测试,让它们在实验室环境中闻细胞的气味。
 
First, the specialists exposed the ants to the smell of a sample of cancerous human cells. This odor was then associated with a reward of sugar solution.
首先,科学家让蚂蚁闻一份人体癌细胞的样本,每当蚂蚁闻癌细胞,就会给它们糖液奖励。
 
In a second step, the researchers exposed the ants to two different odors. One was a new smell and the second was the smell of the cancerous cells.
接下来,研究人员让蚂蚁闻两种不同的气味。一种是新气味,另一种是癌细胞的气味。
 
Once this test was successful, the researchers exposed the ants to different cancerous cells.
这一测试获得成功后,研究人员又让蚂蚁闻两种不同的癌细胞。
 
As such, the scientists found that 'ants discriminate4 between cancerous and healthy cells and between two cancerous lines.'
于是,科学家发现“蚂蚁能将癌细胞和健康细胞区分开来,也能分辨不同的癌细胞”。
 
After training, Formica fusca ants are able to detect volatile5 organic compounds emitted by cancerous cells.
经过训练,丝光褐林蚁能够识别出癌细胞散发出的挥发性有机化合物。
 
'This first study shows that ants have high potential, are capable of learning very quickly, at lower cost, and are efficient,' points out CNRS in a news release.
法国国家科学研究中心在一份新闻稿中指出:“这项初步研究表明,蚂蚁拥有巨大的潜力和快速的学习能力,不仅成本低还高效。”
 
This isn't the first time that scientists have used the animal sense of smell to locate cancerous cells.
这不是科学家第一次利用动物嗅觉来识别癌细胞。
 
'Dogs' noses are well suited for medical diagnosis and used for the detection of cancer-specific [volatile organic compounds],' the researchers explained.
研究人员解释道:“狗鼻子很适合用于医疗诊断以及识别癌细胞(的挥发性有机化合物)。”
 
However, training them to do so requires several months to a year.
但是,让狗学会识别癌细胞需要长达几个月至一年的训练。
 
On the other hand, 'insects can be easily reared in controlled conditions, they are inexpensive, they have a very well-developed olfactory6 system and hundreds of individuals can be conditioned with very few trials,' the researchers point out.
研究人员指出,与此同时,“在受控条件下养殖昆虫很容易,成本低廉,而且昆虫嗅觉发达,只需几次测试就能训练出数百只昆虫。”
 
'Ants therefore represent a fast, efficient, inexpensive, and highly discriminant detection tool for detection of cancer cell volatiles,' the team explained.
该团队解释说:“因此蚂蚁作为识别癌细胞挥发物的工具,既快速、高效、廉价,辨别力又强。”
 
'Our approach could potentially be adapted to a range of other complex odor detection tasks including the detection of narcotics7, explosives, spoiled food, or other diseases, including malaria8, infections, and diabetes9.'
“我们的方法未来也可用于其他一系列复杂的气味识别任务,包括识别毒品、爆炸物、过期食品或疟疾、传染病、糖尿病等疾病。”
 
The findings have been published in the journal iScience.
这一研究结果被发表在《交叉科学》期刊上。

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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 sniff PF7zs     
vi.嗅…味道;抽鼻涕;对嗤之以鼻,蔑视
参考例句:
  • The police used dogs to sniff out the criminals in their hiding - place.警察使用警犬查出了罪犯的藏身地点。
  • When Munchie meets a dog on the beach, they sniff each other for a while.当麦奇在海滩上碰到另一条狗的时候,他们会彼此嗅一会儿。
2 diagnosis GvPxC     
n.诊断,诊断结果,调查分析,判断
参考例句:
  • His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
  • The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。
3 differentiate cm3yc     
vi.(between)区分;vt.区别;使不同
参考例句:
  • You can differentiate between the houses by the shape of their chimneys.你可以凭借烟囱形状的不同来区分这两幢房子。
  • He never learned to differentiate between good and evil.他从未学会分辨善恶。
4 discriminate NuhxX     
v.区别,辨别,区分;有区别地对待
参考例句:
  • You must learn to discriminate between facts and opinions.你必须学会把事实和看法区分出来。
  • They can discriminate hundreds of colours.他们能分辨上百种颜色。
5 volatile tLQzQ     
adj.反复无常的,挥发性的,稍纵即逝的,脾气火爆的;n.挥发性物质
参考例句:
  • With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定,投资冒着很大的风险。
  • His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱,喜怒无常。
6 olfactory Z5EzW     
adj.嗅觉的
参考例句:
  • He is to develop a sensor to substitute for the olfactory abilities of dogs.克罗克将研制一种传感器用以代替狗的嗅觉功能。
  • Based on these findings, Keller suspects that each person has an olfactory blind spot.根据这些发现,凯勒推断,每个人都有一个嗅觉盲区。
7 narcotics 6c5fe7d3dc96f0626f1c875799f8ddb1     
n.麻醉药( narcotic的名词复数 );毒品;毒
参考例句:
  • The use of narcotics by teenagers is a problem in many countries. 青少年服用麻醉药在许多国家中都是一个问题。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • Police shook down the club, looking for narcotics. 警方彻底搜查了这个俱乐部,寻找麻醉品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
8 malaria B2xyb     
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。
9 diabetes uPnzu     
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。

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