仅通过血液测试便可以诊断阿尔茨海默病(上)

Hi, this is Your Health, Quickly, a Scientific American podcast series!

大家好，欢迎来到《科学美国人》播客系列《健康快讯》!

We bring you the latest vital health news: Discoveries that affect your body and your mind.

我们将为大家带来最新健康要闻：影响人们身心健康的发现。

And we break down the medical research to help you stay healthy.

我们将分析医学研究，帮助大家保持健康。

I’m Tanya Lewis. I’m Josh Fischman. We’re Scientific American’s senior health editors.

我是谭雅·刘易斯。我是乔希·费什曼。我们是《科学美国人》的高级健康编辑。

Today, we’re talking about a bunch of new blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease.

今天，我们要谈论的是一系列针对阿尔茨海默病的新血液测试。

They’re a lot easier than existing diagnostics—but they may not always indicate disease.

血液测试比现有的诊断方法容易得多，但它们可能并不总能表明是这种疾病。

And some doctors warn that there are still a lot of questions about treatment.

一些医生警告说，仍存在很多关于治疗的问题。

So… Alzheimer’s. About six million people in U.S. are afflicted by this type of dementia.

说到阿尔茨海默病，美国大约有600万人患有这种痴呆症。

It is a thief of minds, a destroyer of memories, and it’s a killer with no cure.

这种病是思想的窃贼，是记忆的破坏者，是一个无法治愈的杀手。

I’ve known people who’ve had it, and it’s scary to see what it does. How about you?

我认识一些患有这种病的人，看到病症发作真的很可怕。你觉得呢?

I've also known someone close to me who has Alzheimer's, and it is a really devastating disease.

我的亲友中也有人患有阿尔茨海默病，这是一种毁灭性疾病。

I mean, it really takes away a sense of your identity and self, and really a part of your personality, to have this disease.

我是说，得了这种病，身份和自我意识，个性的一部分，会丧失。

So it’s hard to watch somebody go through that.

因此，看着别人经历这些真的很难受。

Yeah, that thing that you said about like losing your identity, losing your memories of yourself and of the people around you is just a devastating thing.

对，你说的失去身份，失去对自己和周围人的记忆，是一件毁灭性的事情。

And you also lose the ability to, to take care of yourself, to wash yourself, to cook, to bathe, to do all of these things that you’ve done for your entire life.

此外，也会失去自我照顾的能力，不能做饭、洗漱、洗澡，无法做已经做了一辈子的事情。

They’ve suddenly become this thing like a puzzle you can’t solve.

这些事情突然变成了解不开的谜题。

But there are finally some new treatments.

但现在终于有了一些新的治疗方法。

One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s, physically, is a buildup of this warped protein, amyloid-beta, in the brain.

从生理上讲，阿尔茨海默病的特征之一是，这种扭曲的蛋白质--淀粉样β蛋白--在大脑中的堆积。

And there are two drugs, Aduhelm and Leqembi, that are designed to clear out these amyloid clumps.

有两种药物，Aduhelm和Leqembi，专门用来清除淀粉样蛋白团块。

Saying amyloid is a hallmark, though, is different than saying it's a cause.

然而，说淀粉样蛋白是这种病的一个特征，与说它是一个病因不同。

There's been a really long debate over causes, and it's not over.

关于病因的争论已经持续了很长时间，而且争论还没有结束。

There could be other toxic proteins or lost connections among brain cells that actually cause the disease.

可能是其他有毒蛋白质导致了这种疾病，或者是脑细胞之间失去联系导致了这种疾病。

Right. It could even be a combination of all those things.

对，甚至可能是所有这些因素相结合导致了这种疾病。

But recently, tests with Leqembi suggested that the amyloid-clearing drug slowed down mental decline for several months.

不过，近期对Leqembi药物的测试表明，这种清除淀粉样蛋白的药物可以延缓几个月的智力衰退。

So the drug both cleans up amyloid and may help with cognitive problems, at least for a little while.

这种药物既可以清除淀粉样蛋白，又可以帮助解决认知问题，至少在一段时间内是这样。

Right. Now, because there are amyloid-focused treatments— even if they’re not super effective—companies are rushing to bring out diagnostic tests to tell you if you have abnormal amyloid in your brain.

对，现在，因为有了针对淀粉样蛋白的治疗方法——即使它们不是特别有效——公司都急于推出诊断检测，来分辨大脑中是否有异常的淀粉样蛋白。

Two of the newest look for fragments of these amyloid proteins in your blood.

最新的两种方法是在血液中寻找淀粉样蛋白片段。