VOA慢速英語:新的大腦成像數(shù)據(jù)庫能夠幫助慢性病患者緩解疼痛

New Brain-Image Database Could Assist Chronic Pain

From VOA Learning English, this is Science in theNews. I’m Christopher Cruise.

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we tell about a WorldHealth Organization report on spinal cord injuries. Then, we tell how American scientists have used stemcells to create lung cells in a laboratory. But first, wereport on efforts to create an international database, orelectronic record, of brain images. Organizers say thedatabase could help researchers develop better waysto treat chronic, long-lasting pain.

New Brain Image Database Could Help ChronicPain Sufferers

Many people suffer from chronic pain. Their joints might hurt. They mightdevelop a migraine headache, with sharp pain in the head. Others might havepain in the stomach or abdomen. Many scientists now believe that chronicpain -- in any part of the body -- is linked to the brain. Scientists in Californiaare now developing an international database of brain images of hundreds ofchronic pain patients. The goal is to speed up research and develop betterways to treat people whose pain never completely goes away.

Emeran Mayer is a gastroenterologist at UCLA, the University of California LosAngeles. Doctors like him study the stomach and intestines.

“One of the big things in pain research has been the failure to really come upwith major breakthroughs in, in treatments.”

Dr. Mayer hopes to develop treatments for people with chronic pain. He isworking on a new field that links chronic pain to biological changes in thebrain. The Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress at UCLA is theheadquarters for the first standardized database of brain imaging linked tochronic pain.

“So I think a lot of people now agree with the concept that chronic pain is abrain disease -- it may start anywhere in the body when you have acute painbut once it becomes a chronic pain syndrome it does become a braindisease.”

Kirsten Tillisch is a professor at the Division of Digestive Diseases at UCLA. She says the imaging database lets doctors look at treating the whole body, not just parts of it.

“One of the, the failures of Western medicine and I think our researchapproaches is how we’ve diced up the human body and how we’ve diced upresearch into these little silos that work very independently.”

Professor Mayer says Western scientists are starting to look more closely athow the mind, body and environment influence each other.

“Big data, medicine, and analysis is essentially doing the same thing that, youknow, the ancient Chinese did by observation. We do it by observing andanalyzing very large data sets and trying to see are there patterns in therethat, that hang together biologically.”

Professor Tillisch says new technology makes that possible.

“You know when I started this type of work ten years ago there wasn’t -- we didn’t have computing power to do these types of analysis. So, in the brainalone in the, in the last decade it’s really exploded what we could look at.”

The database now has the brain scans of more than 500 patients from NorthAmerica and Europe. UCLA is working to gather more. Professor Mayerhopes to include brain images of people from Asian countries in the database.

Up To 500,000 Spinal Cord Injuries Per Year Worldwide

The World Health Organization says as many as 500,000 people suffer spinalcord injuries every year. And it says people with such injuries are much morelikely to die early.

Recently, the World Health Organization released a report called “InternationalPerspectives on Spinal Cord Injuries.” Alana Officer works at the WHO. Shesays spinal cord injuries do more than just cause paralysis, or lack ofmovement.

“There are a lot more associated health problems, such as difficulty withbowel and bladder function, difficulty with sexual function, associatedproblems around mental health conditions. So it’s much broader than justexperiencing paralysis.”

Alana Officer is the WHO’s Coordinator for Disability and Rehabilitation. Shesays the main causes of spinal cord injuries are traffic accidents, falls andviolence. She says some causes are more common in certain areas.

“For example, road traffic crashes are the main contributors of spinal cordinjury in Africa and the Western Pacific region. Falls tend to be the leadingcause in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. And then we have high rates ofviolence in certain countries. We have high rates in the U.S. We have highrates in South Africa. And then we’ve also got the non-traumatic causes ofspinal cord injuries, such as tumors and cancers, tuberculosis andspinabifida.”

Most people think of tuberculosis as a lung disease. But in some Africancountries, it is responsible for about one third of the non-violent spinal cordinjuries.

The birth defect spinabifida causes damage to the spine. In severe cases, itcan affect walking and daily activities. Health officials say they do not yetknow the exact cause of spinabifida. But they say it may be linked to genesand the environment.

Alana Officer says more men than women suffer spinal cord injuries.

“There’s a ratio of about two-to-one of males to females. Men tend to be morelikely to experience spinal cord injury between the ages of about 20 and 29 --women, or certainly girls much younger, between sort of 15 and 19. So that’sour first peak in young people. And then we get a second peak, interestingly, in older people. And the major driver of that is falls, tumors, cancer, etcetera.”

She says the main reason people with spinal cord injuries are more likely todie early is lack of medical care.

“A lot of people with spinal cord injuries, certainly in low- and middle- incomecountries, do not get appropriate emergency response care. Mortality ratesare very strongly affected by the quality of the health care system. Forexample, if you’re in a low-income country, you are three times more likely ofdying in (a) hospital following a spinal cord injury than you would be in a high-income country.”

Ms. Officer says many of the causes of spinal cord injury deaths in poorcountries are preventable. These include urinary tract infections and pressuresores, also known as bedsores. These are areas of damaged skin caused by a person staying in one position too long. Bedsores are usually not life-threatening problems in wealthy countries.

“People with spinal cord injuries can live pretty much the same amount of timeas somebody without a spinal cord injury. There’s a slight difference, butcertainly life expectancy has increased considerably in high-incomecountries. And it’s not the case in low- income countries.”

Experts suggest immediate action if a spinal cord injury is suspected,including immobilization of the spine, restricting its movement. The WHOsays that should be followed by what it calls, “care appropriate to the level andseverity of the injury, degree of instability of the spine and compression ofnerves.” It also suggests “skilled rehabilitation and mental health services.” The WHO notes that up to 30 percent of people with spinal cord injuries show“clinically-significant signs of depression.”

There is currently no cure for paralysis from spinal cord injuries, but manyresearchers are looking for one. Alana Officer says there is much that can bedone to prevent such injuries -- including building safer roads and vehicles,reducing drinking and driving and wearing seatbelts. Other measures includeimproving safety in sports and the workplace, and adding window guards towindows. She says spinal cord injuries would be reduced if doctors couldidentify and treat tuberculosis earlier and by improving nutrition to reducespinabifida cases.

Scientists Create Lung Tissue from Stem Cells

Finally, scientists have used stem cell technology to create working lungcells. Researchers say stem cells also could be used to create new drugs totreat diseases that restrict breathing. And they think the cells could one daycreate tissue for lung transplant operations. The research is another steptoward what is being called personalized medicine.

Over the past several years, scientists have used stem cells and growthfactors to force the body’s master cells to create other cells. This processhas created heart, intestinal, liver, nerve and insulin-producing cells aspossible replacements for diseased organs.

Now, scientists at Columbia University in New York Cityhave changed stem cells into working, functioning lungcells, at least in the laboratory. The scientists say thiscould help researchers develop drugs and transplantsto treat deadly diseases.

Hans Snoeck is a professor of microbiology andimmunology at Columbia’s medical school. He led thestudy. He says researchers were able to create sixhuman lung and airway cells. One of the cellsproduced a substance called surfactant. In the lungs,surfactant keeps the body’s air passageways open, letting people breathe.

“And we know that the cells that we made can make surfactant, can recycle it,can secrete it again. So we know that they do what they’re supposed to do. And these cells are very essential in lung diseases.”

He adds that impaired surfactant production causes pulmonary fibrosis, adeadly lung condition.

In experiments, researchers showed they could make embryonic stem cellsbecome lung tissue. They used proteins that tell the body’s master cells tobecome lung tissue. Some people have criticized the use of embryonic stemcells because they come from human embryos. That is why the researchersturned to what they call induced pluripotent stem cells. These are skin andother kinds of cells that can act like progenitor cells.

Human embryonic stem cells are examinedunder a microscope.

All of the experiments produced human lung tissue. The researchers placedthis tissue into the kidneys of mice. Dr. Snoeck says the implanted cellsgrew and began acting like lung tissue. Researchers will be able to use thecells as a model for treatments for disabling and deadly lung diseases, likecystic fibrosis.

Dr. Snoeck says lung transplants often are not successful. But in the future, he says, scientists may be able to engineer transplantable donor lungs byremoving all of their cellular material. They would then seed the remainingstructures with lung cells created from the skin cells of the transplant patient.

“In this way we hope to be able to one day -- but this is years away -- to makea lung that a recipient -- someone who is in need of a transplant -- will notreject because all the cells in this lung are made from the same patient.”

A report on the creation of lung tissue from stem cells was published in thejournal Nature Biotechnology.

This Science in the News was written by Christopher Cruise. Our producerwas June Simms. I’m Faith Lapidus.

And I’m Christopher Cruise. Join us again next week for more news aboutscience on the Voice of America.

From VOA Learning English, this is Science in theNews. I’m Christopher Cruise.

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we tell about a WorldHealth Organization report on spinal cord injuries. Then, we tell how American scientists have used stemcells to create lung cells in a laboratory. But first, wereport on efforts to create an international database, orelectronic record, of brain images. Organizers say thedatabase could help researchers develop better waysto treat chronic, long-lasting pain.

New Brain Image Database Could Help ChronicPain Sufferers

Many people suffer from chronic pain. Their joints might hurt. They mightdevelop a migraine headache, with sharp pain in the head. Others might havepain in the stomach or abdomen. Many scientists now believe that chronicpain -- in any part of the body -- is linked to the brain. Scientists in Californiaare now developing an international database of brain images of hundreds ofchronic pain patients. The goal is to speed up research and develop betterways to treat people whose pain never completely goes away.

Emeran Mayer is a gastroenterologist at UCLA, the University of California LosAngeles. Doctors like him study the stomach and intestines.

“One of the big things in pain research has been the failure to really come upwith major breakthroughs in, in treatments.”

Dr. Mayer hopes to develop treatments for people with chronic pain. He isworking on a new field that links chronic pain to biological changes in thebrain. The Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress at UCLA is theheadquarters for the first standardized database of brain imaging linked tochronic pain.

“So I think a lot of people now agree with the concept that chronic pain is abrain disease -- it may start anywhere in the body when you have acute painbut once it becomes a chronic pain syndrome it does become a braindisease.”

Kirsten Tillisch is a professor at the Division of Digestive Diseases at UCLA. She says the imaging database lets doctors look at treating the whole body, not just parts of it.

“One of the, the failures of Western medicine and I think our researchapproaches is how we’ve diced up the human body and how we’ve diced upresearch into these little silos that work very independently.”

Professor Mayer says Western scientists are starting to look more closely athow the mind, body and environment influence each other.

“Big data, medicine, and analysis is essentially doing the same thing that, youknow, the ancient Chinese did by observation. We do it by observing andanalyzing very large data sets and trying to see are there patterns in therethat, that hang together biologically.”

Professor Tillisch says new technology makes that possible.

“You know when I started this type of work ten years ago there wasn’t -- we didn’t have computing power to do these types of analysis. So, in the brainalone in the, in the last decade it’s really exploded what we could look at.”

The database now has the brain scans of more than 500 patients from NorthAmerica and Europe. UCLA is working to gather more. Professor Mayerhopes to include brain images of people from Asian countries in the database.

Up To 500,000 Spinal Cord Injuries Per Year Worldwide

The World Health Organization says as many as 500,000 people suffer spinalcord injuries every year. And it says people with such injuries are much morelikely to die early.

Recently, the World Health Organization released a report called “InternationalPerspectives on Spinal Cord Injuries.” Alana Officer works at the WHO. Shesays spinal cord injuries do more than just cause paralysis, or lack ofmovement.

“There are a lot more associated health problems, such as difficulty withbowel and bladder function, difficulty with sexual function, associatedproblems around mental health conditions. So it’s much broader than justexperiencing paralysis.”

Alana Officer is the WHO’s Coordinator for Disability and Rehabilitation. Shesays the main causes of spinal cord injuries are traffic accidents, falls andviolence. She says some causes are more common in certain areas.

“For example, road traffic crashes are the main contributors of spinal cordinjury in Africa and the Western Pacific region. Falls tend to be the leadingcause in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. And then we have high rates ofviolence in certain countries. We have high rates in the U.S. We have highrates in South Africa. And then we’ve also got the non-traumatic causes ofspinal cord injuries, such as tumors and cancers, tuberculosis andspinabifida.”

Most people think of tuberculosis as a lung disease. But in some Africancountries, it is responsible for about one third of the non-violent spinal cordinjuries.

The birth defect spinabifida causes damage to the spine. In severe cases, itcan affect walking and daily activities. Health officials say they do not yetknow the exact cause of spinabifida. But they say it may be linked to genesand the environment.

Alana Officer says more men than women suffer spinal cord injuries.

“There’s a ratio of about two-to-one of males to females. Men tend to be morelikely to experience spinal cord injury between the ages of about 20 and 29 --women, or certainly girls much younger, between sort of 15 and 19. So that’sour first peak in young people. And then we get a second peak, interestingly, in older people. And the major driver of that is falls, tumors, cancer, etcetera.”

She says the main reason people with spinal cord injuries are more likely todie early is lack of medical care.

“A lot of people with spinal cord injuries, certainly in low- and middle- incomecountries, do not get appropriate emergency response care. Mortality ratesare very strongly affected by the quality of the health care system. Forexample, if you’re in a low-income country, you are three times more likely ofdying in (a) hospital following a spinal cord injury than you would be in a high-income country.”

Ms. Officer says many of the causes of spinal cord injury deaths in poorcountries are preventable. These include urinary tract infections and pressuresores, also known as bedsores. These are areas of damaged skin caused by a person staying in one position too long. Bedsores are usually not life-threatening problems in wealthy countries.

“People with spinal cord injuries can live pretty much the same amount of timeas somebody without a spinal cord injury. There’s a slight difference, butcertainly life expectancy has increased considerably in high-incomecountries. And it’s not the case in low- income countries.”

Experts suggest immediate action if a spinal cord injury is suspected,including immobilization of the spine, restricting its movement. The WHOsays that should be followed by what it calls, “care appropriate to the level andseverity of the injury, degree of instability of the spine and compression ofnerves.” It also suggests “skilled rehabilitation and mental health services.” The WHO notes that up to 30 percent of people with spinal cord injuries show“clinically-significant signs of depression.”

There is currently no cure for paralysis from spinal cord injuries, but manyresearchers are looking for one. Alana Officer says there is much that can bedone to prevent such injuries -- including building safer roads and vehicles,reducing drinking and driving and wearing seatbelts. Other measures includeimproving safety in sports and the workplace, and adding window guards towindows. She says spinal cord injuries would be reduced if doctors couldidentify and treat tuberculosis earlier and by improving nutrition to reducespinabifida cases.

Scientists Create Lung Tissue from Stem Cells

Finally, scientists have used stem cell technology to create working lungcells. Researchers say stem cells also could be used to create new drugs totreat diseases that restrict breathing. And they think the cells could one daycreate tissue for lung transplant operations. The research is another steptoward what is being called personalized medicine.

Over the past several years, scientists have used stem cells and growthfactors to force the body’s master cells to create other cells. This processhas created heart, intestinal, liver, nerve and insulin-producing cells aspossible replacements for diseased organs.

Now, scientists at Columbia University in New York Cityhave changed stem cells into working, functioning lungcells, at least in the laboratory. The scientists say thiscould help researchers develop drugs and transplantsto treat deadly diseases.

Hans Snoeck is a professor of microbiology andimmunology at Columbia’s medical school. He led thestudy. He says researchers were able to create sixhuman lung and airway cells. One of the cellsproduced a substance called surfactant. In the lungs,surfactant keeps the body’s air passageways open, letting people breathe.

“And we know that the cells that we made can make surfactant, can recycle it,can secrete it again. So we know that they do what they’re supposed to do. And these cells are very essential in lung diseases.”

He adds that impaired surfactant production causes pulmonary fibrosis, adeadly lung condition.

In experiments, researchers showed they could make embryonic stem cellsbecome lung tissue. They used proteins that tell the body’s master cells tobecome lung tissue. Some people have criticized the use of embryonic stemcells because they come from human embryos. That is why the researchersturned to what they call induced pluripotent stem cells. These are skin andother kinds of cells that can act like progenitor cells.

All of the experiments produced human lung tissue. The researchers placedthis tissue into the kidneys of mice. Dr. Snoeck says the implanted cellsgrew and began acting like lung tissue. Researchers will be able to use thecells as a model for treatments for disabling and deadly lung diseases, likecystic fibrosis.

Dr. Snoeck says lung transplants often are not successful. But in the future, he says, scientists may be able to engineer transplantable donor lungs byremoving all of their cellular material. They would then seed the remainingstructures with lung cells created from the skin cells of the transplant patient.

“In this way we hope to be able to one day -- but this is years away -- to makea lung that a recipient -- someone who is in need of a transplant -- will notreject because all the cells in this lung are made from the same patient.”

A report on the creation of lung tissue from stem cells was published in thejournal Nature Biotechnology.

This Science in the News was written by Christopher Cruise. Our producerwas June Simms. I’m Faith Lapidus.

And I’m Christopher Cruise. Join us again next week for more news aboutscience on the Voice of America.