鼠狐猴可能比小白鼠更适合“当小白鼠”(下)

Dr Krasnow does, however, have high hopes of the medical side.

然而，克拉斯诺博士确实对医学界寄予厚望。

In particular, as they age, mouse lemurs in captivity sometimes develop the plaques and tangles of abnormal protein seen in human Alzheimer's patients.

特别是，随着年龄的增长，圈养的鼠狐猴有时会出现人类阿尔茨海默病患者中出现的异常蛋白质斑块和缠结。

At the same time, they develop behavioural abnormalities, such as forgetfulness.

同时，他们也会出现行为异常，比如健忘。

Nothing similar happens naturally in mice.

在老鼠身上不会发生类似的自然现象。

Nor do mice develop the sorts of heart arrhythmias seen in people.

老鼠也不会患上人类所见的各种心律失常。

But mouse lemurs do.

但是鼠狐猴有。

In fact, he and his colleagues have now identified nine types of arrhythmia in their lemurs, each of which corresponds to one found in people.

事实上，他和他的同事们现在已经在鼠狐猴身上发现了九种类型的心律失常，每种类型都与在人类身上发现的相对应。

Though the animals will not be subjected to invasive sampling while alive, the ability to identify them individually in the wild means that their behaviour can be studied, to see if it changes as they age in ways similar to ageing in people.

虽然这些动物在活着的时候不会受到侵入性的采样，但在野外单独识别它们的能力意味着可以研究它们的行为，看看它们是否会随着年龄的增长而发生类似于人类衰老的变化。

What else might be discovered from this behavioural work remains to be seen, for this is an old-fashioned experiment of the sort that is not testing a specific hypothesis but, rather, searching for leads to pursue.

从这项行为工作中还能发现什么还有待观察，因为这是一种老式的实验，它不是在测试特定的假设，而是在寻找要追寻的线索。

Meanwhile, back in the lab, and thanks to a technique called single-cell rna expression profiling, Dr Krasnow and his Stanford colleague Stephen Quake have built a near-complete atlas of lemur cell types—about 750 in all.

与此同时，回到实验室，借助一种名为单细胞rna表达谱的技术，克拉斯诺博士和他在斯坦福大学的同事斯蒂芬奎克建立了一份近乎完整的狐猴细胞类型图谱，总共约750种。

This permits a whole new level of investigation.

这使得调查达到了一个全新的水平。

For example, they were able to identify a metastatic cell in the lung of an animal that had had to be put down because it had cancer, as deriving from that animal's uterus.

例如，他们能够在一只因患癌症而不得不安乐死的动物的肺中发现一个转移性细胞，它来自于该动物的子宫。

It could all fall flat on its face, of course.

当然，这一切可能都会一败涂地。

For one thing, the field data may shed no light on disease-relevant biology after all.

首先，现场数据可能终究无法揭示与疾病相关的生物学。

Most of the illnesses that Dr Krasnow is interested in manifest themselves in later life.

克拉斯诺博士感兴趣的大多数疾病都在晚年才显现出来。

In humans, such diseases are associated with behaviours which evolution did not foresee, such as consuming processed food or sitting at a desk all day.

在人类中，此类疾病与进化没有预见到的行为有关，比如食用加工食品或整天坐在办公桌前。

Since being locked up in a cage and fed a reliable supply of food is equally unnatural, that may also be true for lemurs.

由于被关在笼子里并得到可靠的食物供应同样是不自然的，这对狐猴来说可能也是如此。

It is therefore by no means clear that looking at wild lemurs will add anything.

因此，观察野生狐猴是否会增加一些东西，还并不清楚。

Moreover, illnesses like Alzheimer's are not exactly life-elongating.

此外，像阿尔茨海默症这样的疾病并不能延长寿命。

In the wild, any individual manifesting them would probably get short shrift from natural selection.

在野外，任何表现出这些特征的个体都可能会受到自然选择的冷落。

Indeed, there is a whole body of theory which suggests the very reason they manifest only in old age is because, in a state of nature, a human being would probably have died or been killed before they had had a chance to appear.

事实上，有许多理论表明，它们只有在晚年才表现出来，正是因为在自然状态下，一个人可能在有机会出现症状之前就已经死亡或被杀害了。

There is also the political side of things.

还有政治方面的事情。

Though researchers on other species are unlikely to be hostile in principle to mouse lemurs joining the model-animal-research party, whether they will co-operate with the group of newcomers in the far corner who are talking animatedly about the critters remains to be seen.

尽管其他物种的研究人员原则上不太可能对鼠狐猴加入“模型生物研究”抱敌意态度，但他们是否会与这群来自遥远角落、正在热烈讨论这些动物的新来者合作，还有待观察。

Model animals do, however, require a consensus that that is what they are—and this consensus is best built by lots of people studying lots of different aspects of them.

然而，模型动物确实需要一个共识，那就是它们是什么，而这个共识最好是由许多人研究它们的不同方面建立起来的。

So if not enough people join the mouse-lemur clique, the project will be doomed.

因此，如果没有足够的人加入鼠狐猴战队，这个项目将注定失败。

Another potential threat is that, although mouse lemurs do not truly share the mini-me human lookalikeness of monkeys and apes, they are still pretty cute.

另一个潜在的威胁是，尽管鼠狐猴并不像猴子和猿那样长得像人类一样，但它们仍然很可爱。

Those opposed to animal experiments of any sort—even the carefully non-invasive work being done by Dr Krasnow and Dr Wright—could probably make something of that.

那些反对任何形式的动物实验的人，即使是克拉斯诺博士和赖特博士正在进行的谨慎的非侵入性研究，他们可能也会有所作为。

And the very similarity of physiology to humans that makes the lemurs an attractive subject of study might also be used to argue that they should not be used in research.

狐猴与人类在生理上的相似之处使它们成为一个有吸引力的研究对象，这也可能被用来证明它们不应该被用于研究。

Still, it is a bold idea, and certainly worth pursuing.

尽管如此，这仍然是一个大胆的想法，当然值得追求。

Perhaps the cross-fertilisation of laboratory and field studies in this way will, indeed, turn out to be the wave of the future.

或许，以这种将实验室研究和实地研究相结合的方式，将会成为未来的潮流。

In army terms, mouse lemurs are now at boot camp, undergoing basic training.

用军队术语来说，鼠狐猴现在正在新兵训练营接受基本训练。

Whether they will pass muster remains to be seen.

他们是否会通过审查还有待观察。