中英双语新闻——21 Frog skin medicine

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Scientists have long known that the skin of frogs contains plenty of powerful germ-fighting substances because of the hostile environments they exist in.

科学家很久以前就知道，由于生存环境恶劣，青蛙的皮肤中含有大量能够对抗微生物的物质。

But the substances are also often poisonous to humans.

但对人来说，这些物质同样含有剧毒。

 

Now a team at the United Arab Emirates University have worked out a way of modifying the chemicals to remove their harmful side-effects.

现在，阿联酋大学的一个研究小组找到了一种办法，对这些化学物质进行处理，消除有害的副作用。

 

They have already identified 100 new antibiotics² including one that could fight the superbug.

他们已经发现了100种新型抗生素，其中包括一种能够对抗超级细菌的抗生素。

 

Frog skin is an excellent potential source of such antibiotic¹ agents," said Dr Michael Conlon, a biochemist at the university in Abu Dhabi.

阿布扎比大学生物化学家迈克尔•康伦博士表示，青蛙皮肤是该抗生素一个极佳的潜在来源。

 

“They`ve been around 300 million years, so they`ve had plenty of time to learn how to defend themselves against disease-causing microbes in the environment.”

“它们已存在约3亿年，因此它们有足够的时间来学习如何保护自己免受环境中致病微生物的伤害。”

 

"Their own environment includes polluted waterways where strong defences against pathogens are a must."

“它们生存的环境就包括受到污染的水域，在这种地方，它们必须具有对病原体的强大防御能力。”

 

Scientists have known for years that the skin of frogs is a rich source of chemicals capable of killing³ bacteria, viruses, and fungi⁴.

一直以来，科学家们就知道青蛙的皮肤中含有大量能够杀死细菌、病毒和真菌的化学物质。

 

Researchers have attempted to isolate⁵ those germ-fighting chemicals and make them suitable for development into new antibiotics.

研究人员曾试着将这些抗菌的化学物分离出来，使它们适用于新抗生素的研制。

 

Success, however, has been elusive⁶ because the antibiotics tend to be toxic⁷ to human cells and certain chemicals in the bloodstream easily destroy them.

但结果成功与否还是个未知数，因为这些抗生素往往对人体细胞有害，而且血液中的某些化学物质能够轻易将它们破坏掉。

 

Dr Conlon and colleagues have discovered a way to tweak their molecular⁸ structure, making them less toxic to human cells but more powerful germ killers⁹.

康伦博士和同事发现了一个能改变它们分子结构的办法，使它们对人体细胞的毒性变小，但杀灭细菌的能力更强。

 

Similarly, the scientists also discovered other tweaks that enabled the frog skin secretions¹⁰ to shrug¹¹ off attack by destructive enzymes¹² in the blood.

科学家们还发现了类似的其他好办法，让青蛙皮肤分泌的物质不会被血液中的酶的所破坏。

 

The scientists are currently screening skin secretions from more than 6,000 species of frogs for antibiotic activity. So far, they have purified and determined¹³ the chemical structure of barely 200, leaving a potential bonanza¹⁴ of antibiotic substances awaiting discovery.

科学家们现在正对6000多种青蛙的皮肤分泌物进行甄选，以用于新型抗生素的研究。到目前为止，他们刚刚对200种青蛙的皮肤分泌物进行了提纯并确定化学结构，因此还有一个大量的抗生素的宝藏有待发掘。

 

One substance isolated¹⁵ from the skin secretions of the Foothill Yellow-legged Frog shows promise for killing superbug.

从黄腿蛙的皮肤分泌物中提取出来的一种物质有望杀灭超级细菌。

 

The skin of the mink¹⁶ frog, likewise, contains secretions that show promise for fighting "Iraqibacter".

同样，貂皮蛙的皮肤分泌物则有望对抗“伊拉克细菌”。

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