How the Coronavirus Steals the Sense of Smell 新冠病毒如何偷走嗅覺


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讀紐時學英文
2022/04/08 第377期 訂閱/退訂看歷史報份
 
 
紐時周報精選 How the Coronavirus Steals the Sense of Smell 新冠病毒如何偷走嗅覺
In Europe, Doors Shut to Mideast Migrants Are Flung Open for Ukrainians 歐洲廣開善門收難民 限烏克蘭人
紐時周報精選
 
How the Coronavirus Steals the Sense of Smell 新冠病毒如何偷走嗅覺
文/Roni Caryn Rabin
譯/李京倫

新冠病毒如何偷走嗅覺

Few of COVID-19's peculiarities have piqued as much interest as anosmia, the abrupt loss of smell that has become a well-known hallmark of the disease.

COVID patients lose this sense even without a stuffy nose; the loss can make food taste like cardboard and coffee smell noxious, occasionally persisting after other symptoms have resolved.

少有新冠肺炎的特點像嗅覺喪失一樣激起那麼多關注。嗅覺喪失是突然失去嗅覺,已成為這種疾病眾所周知的特徵。新冠肺炎患者甚至沒有經歷鼻塞就失去嗅覺。失去嗅覺會讓食物嘗起來像硬紙板,咖啡氣味難聞,這種症狀偶爾會在其他症狀消退後持續。

Scientists are now beginning to unravel the biological mechanisms, which have been something of a mystery: The neurons that detect odors lack the receptors that the coronavirus uses to enter cells, prompting a long debate about whether they can be infected at all.

科學家現在開始弄懂這個向來可說是個謎的生物機制:感知氣味的神經元並無受體供新冠病毒用來進入細胞,引發關於這些神經元究竟能否被感染的長期爭論。

Insights gleaned from new research could shed new light on how the coronavirus might affect other types of brain cells, leading to conditions like "brain fog," and possibly help explain the biological mechanisms behind long COVID — symptoms that linger for weeks or months after the initial infection.

從新近研究收集來的洞見或許能進一步闡明,新冠病毒如何侵襲其他種類的腦細胞,導致「腦霧」等症狀出現,而且或許能解釋新冠長期症狀的生物機轉。新冠長期症狀是在最初感染後持續數周或數月的症狀。

The new work, along with earlier studies, settles the debate over whether the coronavirus infects the nerve cells that detect odors: It does not. But the virus does attack other supporting cells that line the nasal cavity, the researchers found.

除了稍早的研究之外,新研究也解決了關於新冠病毒會不會侵擾察覺氣味的神經細胞爭論。答案是不會。不過,研究人員發現,新冠病毒攻擊的是位在鼻腔內側的其他支持細胞。

The infected cells shed virus and die, while immune cells flood the region to fight the virus. The subsequent inflammation wreaks havoc on smell receptors, proteins on the surface of the nerve cells in the nose that detect and transmit information about odors.

被感染的細胞擺脫病毒後死亡,同時免疫細胞蜂擁到這個區域對抗病毒。隨後的發炎嚴重破壞嗅覺受體,即鼻內神經細胞表面能察覺並傳達氣味資訊的蛋白質。

The process alters the sophisticated organization of genes in those neurons, essentially short-circuiting them, the researchers reported.

研究人員說,這個過程改變了這些神經元基因的複雜組織,實質上使神經元基因短路。

Their paper significantly advances the understanding of how cells critical to the sense of smell are affected by the virus, despite the fact that they are not directly infected, said Dr. Sandeep Robert Datta, an associate professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study.

並未參與這分研究的美國哈佛大學醫學院神經生物學副教授達塔博士說,他們的論文大幅增進了這方面的了解:對嗅覺至關重要的細胞儘管不會被新冠病毒直接感染,卻會被新冠病毒侵襲。

"It's clear that indirectly, if you affect the support cells in the nose, lots of bad things happen," Datta said. "The inflammation in the adjacent cells triggers changes in the sensory neurons that prevent them from working properly."

達塔說:「顯然,如果你攻擊鼻子的支持細胞,有很多壞事會間接發生。鄰近細胞發炎會引起感覺神經元改變,使感覺神經元無法正常工作。」

Indeed, many complications of COVID appear to be caused by the immune system's friendly fire as it responds to infection by flooding the bloodstream with inflammatory proteins called cytokines.

的確,許多新冠肺炎併發症似乎由免疫系統對自己人的攻擊引起,因為免疫系統應付感染的方式是讓血液中充滿名為細胞激素的發炎蛋白質。

 
In Europe, Doors Shut to Mideast Migrants Are Flung Open for Ukrainians 歐洲廣開善門收難民 限烏克蘭人
文/Lara Jakes
譯/李京倫

歐洲廣開善門收難民 限烏克蘭人

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has pushed tens of thousands of people out of their homes and fleeing across borders to escape violence. But unlike the refugees who have flooded Europe in crises over the past decade, they are being welcomed.

俄國入侵烏克蘭,迫使數以萬計烏克蘭人離開家園並逃出國界以避開暴力,不過,他們不像過去十年在危機時湧入歐洲的難民一樣被排斥,而是受到歡迎。

Countries that have for years resisted taking in refugees from wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are now opening their doors to Ukrainians as Russian forces carry out a nationwide military assault. More than 2.4 million refugees have left Ukraine, according to United Nations estimates, and at least half of them have crowded onto trains, jammed highways or walked to get across their country's borders in what officials warn could become the world's next refugee crisis.

俄部隊向烏克蘭全境發動軍事攻擊之際,多年來拒收敘利亞、伊拉克與阿富汗戰爭難民的國家,如今開門迎接烏克蘭人。聯合國估計,超過240萬難民已離開烏克蘭,其中至少半數擠上火車、開車堵滿公路或步行越過國界,官員警告,這可能成為全球下一場難民危機。

U.N. and U.S. officials described their concerted diplomatic push for Ukraine's neighbors and other European nations to respond to the outpouring of need. President Joe Biden "is certainly prepared" to accept refugees from Ukraine, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said Thursday, but she noted that the majority of them would probably choose to remain in Europe so they could more easily return home once the fighting ended.

聯合國與美國官員說,他們協調一致,在外交上推動烏克蘭鄰國與其他歐洲國家應對大量需要協助的人。白宮發言人莎奇周四說,美國總統拜登「當然準備好」接收烏克蘭難民,不過她說,其中多數人也許會選擇留在歐洲,以便一旦戰事結束能更容易返國。

That means thousands will end up in countries led by nationalist governments that in past crises have been reluctant to welcome refugees or even blocked them.

這意味數以千計烏克蘭人最後將來到民族主義政府領導的國家,這些國家在先前幾次危機中不太情願的接受難民,甚至阻擋他們。

In Poland, government officials assisted by American soldiers and diplomats have set up processing centers for Ukrainians. The Polish government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a border wall, a project it began after refugees and migrants from the Middle East tried to reach the country last year but ended up marooned in neighboring Belarus.

在波蘭,政府官員在美軍和外交官協助下設立烏克蘭難民處理中心。去年中東難民與移民企圖抵達波蘭,但最後困在鄰國白俄羅斯,從那之後,波蘭政府花費數億美元興建邊牆。

The military in Hungary is allowing in Ukrainians through sections of the border that had been closed. Hungary's hard-line prime minister, Viktor Orban, has previously called refugees a threat to his country, and his government has been accused of caging and starving them.

匈牙利軍方允許烏克蘭人越過先前關閉的邊界區段。立場強硬的匈牙利總理奧班曾說難民威脅他的國家,他的政府曾被控監禁難民並讓他們挨餓。

Farther west, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said that "of course we will take in refugees if necessary" in light of the crisis in Ukraine.

As recently as last fall, when he was serving as interior minister, Nehammer sought to block some Afghans seeking refuge after the Taliban overthrew the government in Kabul.

再往西,奧地利總理內哈默說,考量烏克蘭危機,「我們當然會在必要時接收難民」。就在去年秋天內哈默擔任內政部長時,他還阻止一些在神學士推翻喀布爾政府後逃離的阿富汗人獲得庇護。

 
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