Science and Technolgy
科技
Diagnosing dementia
痴呆症的诊断
Advance warning
病情恶化预警
How to detect Alzheimer's before symptoms appear-if you are a woman
作为一名女性，如何在症状出现前诊断阿尔茨海默氏症
ALZHEIMER'S disease has no cure.
阿尔茨海默氏症目前尚无法治愈。
There are, however, five drugs-known and approved-that can slow down the development of its symptoms.
然而，有五种已知并获批准的药物能减缓其症状的恶化。
The earlier such drugs are administered, the better.
这些药物越早使用，效果越佳。
Unfortunately, the disease is usually first noticed when people complain to their doctors of memory problems.
遗憾的是，该疾病一般在病人向医生抱怨自己记忆力出了问题时才第一次被察觉。
That is normally too late for the drugs to do much good.
通常在这种情况下，药物的最佳治疗时机已过。
A simple and reliable test for Alzheimer's that can be administered to everybody over the age of about 65, before memory-loss sets in, would therefore be useful.
因此，只有找到一种能在65岁以上人群记忆力衰退前检测该病的简单、可靠的方法，才能真正收到疗效。
Theo Luider, of the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, and his colleagues think they have found one-but it works only in women.
荷兰鹿特丹伊拉斯姆斯大学医学中心的西奥?路德和同事找到了一种有效的检测方法，但只对女性有效。
They made their discovery, just reported in the Journal of Proteome Research, by tapping into a long-term, continuing study that started in 1995 with 1,077 non-demented and otherwise healthy people aged between 60 and 90.
该发现刊登在了最新的《蛋白质组学研究杂志》。这是一项始于1995年的长期且仍在持续的研究，共有1077名年龄在60至90岁的精神正常且身体健康的人参与。
At the beginning of the project, and subsequently during the periods 1997-99 and 2002-04, participants were brought in for a battery of neurological and cognitive investigations, physical examinations, brain imaging and blood tests.
研究初期，以及此后的1997-1999和2002-2004两个时间段内，参与者分别接受了一轮神经和认知系统测试、身体检查、大脑成像和血液检查。
During the first ten years of the study, 43 of the volunteers developed Alzheimer's disease.
研究的第一个10年间，43名志愿者患上了阿尔茨海默氏症。
When Dr Luider compared blood samples from these people with samples from 43 of their fellow volunteers, matched for sex and age, who had remained Alzheimer's-free, he found something startling.
路德医生将这些人的血液样本和另外43名性别、年龄匹配但没有患病的志愿者对比后，有了惊人的发现。
Levels of a substance called pregnancy zone protein had been unusually high, even before their symptoms appeared, in some of those who went on to develop Alzheimer's disease.
某些患上阿尔茨海默氏症的志愿者，其血液中一种名为妊娠带蛋白的物质含量非常高，甚至在症状出现前也是如此。
Those "some", it turned out, were all women.
这些志愿者，最终都被确认为女性。
On average, levels of pregnancy zone protein in those women who went on to develop Alzheimer's were almost 60% higher than those of women who did not. In men, levels of the protein were the same for both.
通常，女性患者体内的妊娠带蛋白含量比健康女性高出60%，男性的这一蛋白水平则没有变化。
The reason for this curious result seems to be that the brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease are themselves turning out pregnancy zone protein.
出现这一结果的原因可能是，与阿尔茨海默氏症相关的大脑斑块自身分泌这一蛋白。
Certainly, when Dr Luider applied a chemical stain specific to that protein to the plaques of dead Alzheimer's patients he found the protein present in them.
路德医生将针对该蛋白的特定化学染色剂注入死亡病人的大脑斑块中，从而证明了这一蛋白的存在。
Confusingly, though, it was there in the plaques of both sexes.
然而，令人不解的是，男女病患的大脑斑块中都有这一蛋白。
Presumably, female cells (and therefore the plaques of female brains) make more of it than male cells do.
据此推测，女性细胞（包括女性大脑中的斑块）比男性细胞分泌更多的妊娠带蛋白。
But that remains to be proved.
不过，这一理论还有待证实。
Whatever the reason, however, this result means that women, at least, may soon be able to tell whether and when they are at risk of Alzheimer's-and thus do something about it before they start losing their minds.
不论是什么原因，这项结果至少意味着女性能更早知晓自己是否有罹患阿尔茨海默氏症的危险，从而在丧失记忆之前尽快加以治疗。