New diet trend: autophagy and ageing

① Few would turn down the chance to live longer, and ideas range from starvation diets to blood transfusions from the young.

很少有人会拒绝活的更久的机会，方法非常多样，包括饥饿节食法，年轻人提供输血等。

② A paper published in Nature this week looks at autophagy (Greek for "self-eating"), the process by which cells break down and recycle parts for re-use.

在本周《自然》上发表的一篇文章探讨了细胞自噬一词，这个词源自希腊语，指细胞分解并回收部分物质以供重新使用的过程。

③ Researchers found that mice engineered to have higher levels of beclin-1, an autophagy-associated protein, lived about 10% longer than unmodified cousins.

研究者发现，被基因工程改编而具有更高水平多功能蛋白的老鼠要比未被改变基因的亲缘鼠有约10%的机会活得更长。这种多功能蛋白与细胞自噬相关联。

④ They were healthier, too, suffering fewer cancers and less heart and kidney damage.

这些接受了基因改编的白鼠也会更健康，癌症率更低，心脏和肾脏的受损几率更小。

⑤ The finding joins mounting evidence that autophagy is important in hindering ageing, though the mechanism remains unclear.

这项发现更进一步证实了细胞自噬对于延缓衰老的重要性，但这个过程的运行机制是怎样的尚不明确。

⑥ (One theory is that it recycles worn-out cellular components whose operation generates highly reactive free radicals—chemicals that play havoc with all sorts of cellular processes.)

其中一个理论认为细胞自噬回收了分解老旧的细胞内成分，它们的存在和作用会产生反应度很高的自由基(自由基是一种对所有细胞内分解过程都会带来负面影响的化学物质)

⑦ The protein in question might one day make a target for drug development.

以上我们正在讨论的蛋白质将有可能成为药物发展的目标。

⑧ However, as with all drugs, the treatment will be in the dose—too much autophagy is as bad as too little.

然而，和所有药物一样，这种治疗方式也存在一个计量的问题，自噬量太高和太少一样都是有问题的。

参考资料：

https://huanqiukexue.com/a/qianyan/shengwu__yixue/2015/1120/25791.html

20180606晨间译文