时差N小时:蝙蝠的唾液 Bat Spit

Anyone who reads gothic fiction will tell you thatvampires arebad news.

读过哥特小说的人都会说吸血蝙蝠是个讨厌的东西。

People who read modern medical journals,however,might disagree-in fact, they think vampiresjust might help savelives.

而那些读现代医学杂志的人也许不同意这样的观点，他们认为吸血蝠能帮助拯救生命。

The kind of vampire I'm talking about is Desmodusrotundus, commonly known as the “vampirebat.”

我说的是圆形叶口蝠，俗称“吸血蝙蝠”。

Yep, these little creatures are real; and even though they almost never turn into suaveRomanian counts to drool over, they do drool a lot themselves.

是的，这些小家伙是真实的，尽管它们几乎没有垂涎于温雅的罗马利亚人，但它们却经常流口水，

That's because their saliva is anessential part of their dining habits.

因为唾液是它们饮食习惯中的必不可少的一部分。

When a vampire bat latches onto, say, a steer, it needs to keep the blood flowing from thepuncture made by its teeth.

当吸血蝙蝠缠在，比如一直公牛身上时，必须保持血液从牙齿咬开的孔流过。

That's achieved by a natural anti-coagulant in the vampire bat'ssaliva.

这是通过蝙蝠唾液里一种天然的抗凝血剂来实现的。

Despite what you see in the movies, vampire bats almost never drink human blood.

尽管你会在电影里看到，吸血蝙蝠几乎从来不吸人的血。

But people do suffer from other blood problems-a leading one being stroke.

但人类患有其它血液疾病—最重要的就是中风。

Stroke is caused by a clotting in the blood which stops the flow and can starve areas of thebrain of oxygen.

中风是由于血液凝结成块阻碍其流动，从而导致大脑部分缺氧。

Doctors have generally broken up clots with a compound called tPA.

医生们已经找到了分解血液凝块的化合物，就是tPA。

TPA works okay,but it has dangerous side effects, and can even hurt brain cells.

TPA很有效，但具有危险的副作用，甚至会损伤脑细胞。

A better idea?

有更好的主意吗?

Bring in the bats, says researcher Robert Medcalf, a biochemist from Australia.

澳大利亚生物化学家，Robert Medcalf对蝙蝠进行研究。

Vampire bat spit contains a different compound, DSPA, which does the good things tPA doeswithfar fewer side-effects.

吸血蝙蝠的唾液中含有一种不同的化合物，DSPA，它能够帮助减少tPA引起的副作用，

DSPA is now being tried on patients who have suffered a stroke; the datashould be in within ayear.

DSPA现在正在患有中风病人身上测试，结果将于一年内揭晓。

If it works, doctors might have found an unlikely friend–the vampire bat.

如果有效的话，医生们也许多一位意想不到的朋友—吸血蝙蝠。