科學家發出警告 基因技術或將成爲新型興奮劑

Doping scandals marred the runup to the Rio Olympics and other Games of the recent past. Now, scientists warn that cheating could rise to a new level using genetic research.

興奮劑醜聞給里約奧運會和最近的其他比賽蒙上了一層陰影。現在，科學家警告稱，如果使用基因技術，作弊將上升到一個新的高度。

There are already a number of products and methods used to boost athletic performance that the International Olympic Committee considers to be illegal.

目前國際奧委會已經認定很多用來提高運動員成績的產品和手段是非法的了。

For example, there's a hormone that can boost red blood cell production, making more oxygen available. That increases endurance. Then there are anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, which promote muscle growth.

例如，有一種激素可以促進紅細胞生長，製造更多氧氣。這樣就可以提高耐力。還有可以促進肌肉生長的同化性類固醇和人類生長激素。

There are a couple of types of blood doping. One involves a transfusion of the athlete's own blood that had been removed earlier and stored.

還有兩種血液興奮劑。一種是運動員提前把自己的血液抽出並儲存起來，賽前再輸回去；

The second method uses blood from another person, but of the same type as the athlete's blood. Both methods raise the number of red blood cells that carry oxygen.

另一種是使用相同血型的其他人的血液。這兩種方法都能夠提高血液中紅細胞的數量。

Carl Johan Sundberg, a professor of molecular exercise physiology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency's gene doping panel, said scientists have gotten pretty good at detecting doping substances, as long as there's not too much time between doping and testing.

瑞典斯德哥爾摩卡羅林斯卡醫學院分子運動生理學教授、也是世界反興奮劑機構基因興奮劑小組成員卡爾·喬安·桑德伯格表示，科學家們已經很好地掌握了檢測藥物成分的方法，只要服藥時間和檢測時間不要間隔太久。

"The illegal substances used fade out over — depending on the type of drug — days, weeks or months," he said.

“運動員體內的的非法藥物含量“依藥物種類而定--會隨着時間減少，可能是幾天，也可能是幾周、幾個月。”他說道。

"But with the new techniques and the new discoveries of long-term metabolites, metabolic steroids, weeks have become months.

“但是隨着技術手段的發達和長效代謝類固醇的問世，這個時間還會延長。

So the chance of detection has gone up a lot, which is why retesting recently of samples from the London and Beijing Olympic Games has shown that there's a higher prevalence of doping usage than was assumed with the previous testing methodologies."

所以檢測的機會提升了很多，這就是爲什麼倫敦奧運會和北京奧運會之間進行的重新檢測，檢出的藥物使用率非常之高，比用傳統技術手段檢測高得多。”

The next phase of cheating, however, may involve gene doping, which Sundberg defined as "the administration of nucleic acids of some sort — mainly DNA or other types of similar molecules — that are put into the body normally in health care for the purpose of gene therapy to treat specific disorders."

桑德伯格認爲，下一階段的作弊可能會是基因層面的用藥，用他的話說就是“控制一些核酸——比如脫氧核糖核酸和具有相似分子的核酸——這種手段本來是作爲基因療法用來治療一些紊亂的。”

But athletes, he said, would be seeking "to boost certain genes that may improve performance. We don't know yet whether this has been done anywhere, but presumably, nevertheless, it will be used sometime."

但是他表示，運動員們可能會刺激一些可以幫助提高成績的基因。我們不知道有沒有過這種做法，但是無論如何，這種方法早晚都會出現的。

Sundberg warned that there are health risks to athletes who use gene doping. For instance, there can be adverse effects on the immune system from the virus that carries the artificial genes through the body.

桑德伯格警告稱，使用基因興奮劑的運動員可能會有健康風險。例如，免疫系統會產生副作用，病毒會隨着人造基因遊走全身。

Those genes also could cause cancer because of an enhanced growth of cells.

因爲細胞的異常生長，這些基因還可能引發癌症。