過敏有救了！最新免疫療法可預防各種食物過敏
Food allergies are frustrating at best and life-threatening at worst, but scientists have developed animmunotherapy technique that can reverse allergic reactions in mice, and they think it could be used to treat allergies in humans, too.
食物過敏即便作最樂觀的估計也是令人沮喪的，而在最壞的情況下有可能危及生命，不過科學家研製了一種免疫療法，它可以逆轉小鼠體內的過敏反應，因此他們認爲這種療法也可用來治療人類的過敏症。
The treatment works by triggering the production of new dendritic cells - cells signal to other immune cells to cancel their hyper-immune responses. This ensured that anaphylaxis did not occur.
這種療法可以促進新樹突細胞的增殖，通過向其他免疫細胞發送信號來撤銷它們的超免疫反應，確保過敏反應不會發生。
"If we can reliably 'cure' food allergies, or related conditions such as asthma or autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis with this new therapy, it would be life-changing for affected individuals," said lead scientist John Gordon from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.
加拿大薩斯喀徹溫大學首席科學家約翰·戈登表示，“如果我們確實能用這種新療法‘治癒’食物過敏或相關的病症，如哮喘或多發性硬化症一類的自身免疫性疾病，對那些受過敏反應影響的人來說，這將會改變他們的人生。”
Dendritic cells occur naturally in tissues that are in contact with the external environment, such as your outer layer of skin, and the inner lining of your nose, lungs, stomach, and intestines.
樹突細胞自然地出現在與外部環境有聯繫的組織中，如你的外層皮膚以及鼻子、肺、胃、腸等器官的內壁。
Gordon and his team extracted some of these cells from mice, and exposed them to a unique mix of proteins, a vitamin A-related acid that occurs naturally in the human gut, and an allergen - peanut or egg white proteins.
戈登和他的團隊從小鼠身上提取了部分樹突細胞，並使其接觸到由蛋白質、與維生素A有關的一種酸以及一種過敏源組成的獨特混合物。這種酸生來就存在於人體腸道中，而這種過敏源可以是花生或蛋清蛋白。
When the modified dendritic cells were reintroduced to the mice, their allergic reactions were virtually eliminated.
當被改造過的樹突細胞再次被引入小鼠體內的時候，它們的過敏反應幾乎就完全根除了。
While the technique has so far only been tested on mice, the researchers are hoping to progress to human trials within the next year.
不過，到目前爲止，這項技術只在小鼠身上做過試驗。研究人員希望明年可以在人體試驗上取得進步。
Effective treatment for allergies could transform the lives of millions. And the team thinks the research could also be applied to other diseases linked to the immune system, such as multiple sclerosis (MS).
治療過敏的有效療法可以改變許多人的生活。該團隊認爲這項研究也可以應用於治療與免疫系統有關的其他疾病中，如多發性硬化症。
