VOA慢速英语:Study: Protein in Mother's Milk May Prevent HIV Transmission to Infants

Hundreds of thousands of children become infected with the AIDS virus every year. There boys and girls are born to mothers who have HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. Infection takes place during pregnancy or from breastfeeding.
每年有成千上万的儿童感染艾滋病病毒。这些孩子们是感染了艾滋病毒的母亲们所生。感染发生在怀孕或哺乳期间。

Recently, Scientists identified a protein in breast milk that suppresses the virus, the protein may even protect babies from become infected. Now, Experts say the discovery could lead to new ways to protect babies whose mothers are infected with HIV.
最近，科学家们发现母乳中的一种蛋白质可以抑制该病毒，甚至可以防止婴儿感染。但专家们目前称，这一发现可能会带来一些保护母亲感染了艾滋病毒的婴儿的新方法。

To prevent Infection, doctors give Anti-retroviral drugs to both mothers and their babies, that has greatly reduced the number of infections. But experts say that even without anti-AIDS drugs, only a small percentage of babies become infected through breast milk.
为了防止感染，医生给母亲及其婴儿服用抗逆转录病毒药物，这样做已经大大减少了感染人数。但专家们称，即使没有抗艾滋药物，也只有一小部分婴儿通过母乳被感染。

Sallie Permar is a professor of pediatrics and immunology at Duke University in North Carolina. She says, breastfeed babies appear to resist infection.
Sallie Permar是北卡罗莱纳州杜克大学小儿科和免疫学教授。她说，母乳喂养的婴儿似乎能抵抗感染。

"It is actually remarkable that despite the infant being exposed to the virus multiple times daily for up to two years of their life, actually only 10 percent of those babies will become infected," said Permar.
Permar说，“尽管这些婴儿在长达两年的生活中每日多次暴露于病毒下，事实上这些婴儿只有10%会感染。”

The low rate of the infection was of great interest to researchers, including Sallie Permar. She led an effort to identify a substance in breast milk that may protect babies from infection.
低感染率引起了包括Sallie Permar在内的研究人员的极大兴趣。她带领大家确定了母乳中的一种物质可能可以保护婴儿免受感染。

Her team directed its attention to a protein called Tenacin-C, also called TNC. It is known to be involved in the process of healing wounds. But what purpose it serves in breast milk is not known.
她的研究小组将注意力放到了一种被称为Tenacin-C（TNC）的蛋白质上，据悉这种蛋白质参与了伤口愈合过程。但它在母乳中的作用还不清楚。

The researchers exposed the TNC protein from breast milk of uninfected women to HIV, the protein linked up to the virus and made it harmless.
研究人员从未感染艾滋病毒女性的母乳中提取了这种TNC蛋白质，这种蛋白质和艾滋病毒结合起来，使这种病毒变得无害。

Antiretroviral drugs remain effective in limiting the passing of HIV from mother to baby. But professor Permar and her team suggest the TNC could be used in places where costly drug treatments are often not available.
抗逆转录病毒药物在限制艾滋病毒母婴传播中仍然有效。但Permar教授和她的团队建议，TNC可以在无法获得昂贵药物治疗的地方使用。

"The issues are access to the drugs as well as monitoring. There are issues of toxicity and anti-retroviral drug resistance. And so we think alternative strategies may be needed to completely eliminate infant transmission," she Permar.
Permar说，“问题包括获得药物和监测，此外还有毒性作用和抗逆转录药物耐药的问题。所以我们认为可能需要其它策略以彻底消除母婴传播。”

She suggests that TNC could be given to babies before breastfeeding to provide additional protection against HIV. She adds that the protein is safe, because it is already in natural part of human milk. This may avoid the problem of HIV become resisted to Antiretroviral drugs.
她建议，可以让婴儿在哺乳前服用TNC，以提供对艾滋病毒的额外保护。她补充说，这种蛋白质是安全的，因为它本来就是人类乳汁的自然成分。这可能能够避免艾滋病毒对抗逆转录病毒药物产生耐药性的问题。

The team reported its findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
该小组将其研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院学报》期刊上。