At 18, Ashanthi De Silva of suburban Cleveland is a living symbol of one of the great intellectual achievements of the 20th century. Born with an extremely rare and usually fatal disorder that left her without a functioning immune system, she was treated beginning in 1990 with a revolutionary new therapy that sought to correct the defect at its very source, in the genes of her white blood cells. It worked. Although her last gene-therapy treatment was in 1992, she is completely healthy with normal immune function, according to one of the doctors who treated her, W. French Anderson of the University of Southern California. Researchers have long dreamed of treating diseases from hemophilia to cancer by replacing mutant (变异的) genes with normal ones. And the dreaming may continue for decades more. "There will be a gene-based treatment for essentially every disease, "Anderson says, "within 50 years."
It's not entirely clear why medicine has been so slow to build on Anderson's early success. The National Institutes of Health budget office estimates it will spend $432 million on gene-therapy research in 2005, and there is no shortage of promising leads. The therapeutic (有益健康的，有治疗性的) genes are usually delivered through viruses that don't cause human disease.
At the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center, immunologist Carl June recently treated HIV patients with a gene intended to help their cells resist the infection. At Cornell University, researchers are pursuing gene-based therapies for Parkinson's disease and a rare hereditary disorder that destroys children's brain cells. At Stanford University and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, researchers are trying to figure out how to help patients with hemophilia who today must inject themselves with expensive clotting drugs for life. Animal experiments have shown great promise.
But somehow, things get lost in the translation from laboratory to patient. In human trials of the hemophilia treatment, patients show a response at first, but it fades over time. And the field has still not recovered from the setback it suffered in 1999, when Jesse Gelsinger, an 18-year-old with a rare metabolic disorder, died after receiving an experimental gene therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. Some experts worry that the field will be tarnished (黯淡的) further if the next people to benefit are not patients but athletes seeking an edge. This summer, researchers at the Salk Institute said they had created a "marathon mouse" by implanting a gene that improves running ability; already, officials at the World Anti-Doping (反兴奋剂) Agency are preparing to test athletes for signs of "gene doping. "But the principle is the same, whether you're trying to help a healthy runner run faster or allow a muscular-dystrophy patient to walk. "Everybody recognizes that gene therapy is a very good idea," says Crystal. "And eventually it's going to work."
【小题1】According to the passage, we know that ________.| A．Jesse Gelsinger give an example of modern treatment for fatal diseases |
| B．the case of Ashanthi Desilva shows the promise of gene-therapy |
| C．researchers have improved people's running ability by implanting a gene |
| D．The gene-therapy way has cured many serious diseases |
| A．greatly speeded the development of medicine |
| B．brought no immediate progress in the research of gene-therapy |
| C．realized his dream |
| D．made him a national hero |
| A．Ashanthi needs to receive gene-therapy treatment constantly. |
| B．Despite the huge funding, gene researches have shown few promises. |
| C．Therapeutic genes are carried by harmless viruses. |
| D．Gene-doping is encouraged by world agencies to help athletes get better scores. |
| A．troubled | B．pessimistic |
| C．optimistic | D．uncertain |
Is your doctor telling you the truth? Possibly not, according to a new survey in Health Affairs of nearly 1,900 doctors around the country
The researehers found hat 55% of the doctors said that in the last year they had been more positive about a patient's prognosis than his medical history.And 10% said that they had told their patients something that wasn't true.About a third of the doctors said they didn't completely agree that they should disclose medical errors to their patients, and 40% said they didn't feel the need to disclose financial ties to drug companies.
Really? The study's lead author, Dr.Lisa Lezzoni, a medical professor, was surprised to learn how dishonest her colleagues were “Some of the numbers were larger than they might be,” she says.
Why the white hes? In some cases, Lezzoni says.it was for self-protection. Nearly 20% of the doctors admitted that they didn't disclose a medical error to their patients because they were afraid of being punished for improper treatment.In other cases, it may have been for the patent's benefit.Some might spare an anxiety from hearing about the slightly abnormal results of a lab test, for example, if It has no negative effect on the patient’s health.
“After all, doctors are human too,” says Lezzonic. “They don't want to upset their patients, they don't want their patients to look unhappy or burst into tears. But they also need to be professionals, so they need to tell themselves that if there is a difficult truth they need to tell their patients, they need to work out a way of communicating that effectively.”
That's important for doctors to appreciate.because as well - intentiuoned as their lies may be, other studies constantly show that patients prefer the truth, and would rather bear unpleasant news than remain ignorant about an awful medical condition. Being fully unformed is a way that patients can prepare for whatever might occur.Therefore,it is necessary for doctors to learn express themselves.
【小题1】Some doctors surveyed tell white lies to ________ .| A．protect their patients' benefit | B．try to defend themselves |
| C．prove they are professionals | D．to earn more money for the drug company |
| A．How doctors learn to tell the truth | B．How to stop patients from complaining |
| C．How doctors feelings affect their patients. | D．How doctors should communicate with their patients |
| A．Tough | B．Boring | C．Enjoyable. | D．Admiring |
| A．To report some medical errors |
| B．To discuss the relationship between doctors and patients |
| C．To persuade the doctors to be honest |
| D．To talk about the suffering of the patients |
You may know the benefits of laughter on the mind and spirit.
Mayo Clinic Health Letter reports that laughter aids breathing by increasing your breathing rate. It can even help clear mucus (粘液) from your lungs.
Furthermore, it is a natural stress reliever. Have you ever laughter so hard that you doubled over, feel off your chair, spit out your food?
Laughter, it's the best medicine.
| A．Laughter is also good for your heart. |
| B．A good laugh helps you build up you body to protect against diseases. |
| C．However, it is confusing why laughter makes people so good. |
| D．However, are you aware of how much a good laugh can help you physically? |
| E．A good laugh relieves physical tension and stress. |
| F．You cannot maintain muscle tension when you are laughing! |
| G．You are likely to feel better and deal with problems more effectively. |
“Health is the greatest wealth,” wise people say.
The doctor will examine your throat, test your blood pressure, take your temperature, sound your heart and lungs, check your teeth or have your chest X -rayed.
A month later the gentleman came into the doctor’s office.
| A．He looked cheerful and happy. |
| B．All these will cost a lot of money. |
| C．He was more worried about his illness. |
| D．After that he will advise some treatment of some medicine. |
| E．You can’t be good at your studies or work well when you are ill. |
| F．Speaking about doctor’s advice, I can’t help telling you a funny story. |
| G．He was suggesting the rule “Eat at pleasure, drink with measure and enjoy life as it is.” |
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