◎陳成良

Australian scientists have developed a "trojan horse" therapy to combat cancer, using a bacterially-derived nano cell to penetrate and disarm the cancer cell before a second nano cell kills it with chemotherapy drugs.

澳洲科學家已研發出一種對抗癌症的「特洛伊木馬」療法，這種療法先從細菌中衍生出一個奈米細胞，然後使之穿透、解除癌細胞威脅，然後再用第二個裝有化療藥物的奈米細胞將之殺死。

The therapy has the potential to directly target cancer cells with chemotherapy, rather than the current treatment that sees chemotherapy drugs injected into a cancer patient and attacking both cancer and healthy cells.

這種療法有潛力能以化療法直接瞄準癌細胞，而不是像現有的療法將化療藥物注入癌症病患體內，並同時攻擊癌細胞和健康細胞。

Himanshu Brahmbhatt from Sydney-based biotechnology company EnGeneIC said the research -- outlined in the journal Nature Biotechnology -- had the potential to reduce the side-effects of cancer treatment and make it cheaper.

雪梨生物科技公司「EnGeneIC」的布倫哈特說，這種奈米細胞具有減少癌症治療副作用和費用較便宜的潛力。這項研究的概要刊登在「自然生物科技」期刊。

Brahmbhatt said the technology allowed medics to target cancer cells without damaging healthy tissue, a major problem with existing chemotherapy treatments.

布倫哈特說，這項技術可以讓醫護人員只針對癌細胞進行治療，而不會損傷健康組織，這是既有化療法所面對的主要問題。

While researchers have been working on using nano-cells against cancer for at least five years, Brahmbhatt said the latest version had proved 100 percent effective treating cancers in mice which were resistant to conventional chemotherapy.

雖然其他研究者已就以奈米細胞對抗癌症進行了至少5年研究，但布倫哈特說，對傳統化療有抗藥性的老鼠，最新的方法已證實治療癌症100%有效。

新聞辭典

Trojan horse：特洛伊木馬，取自「木馬屠城記」中那隻木馬的名稱。「特洛伊木馬病毒」（或稱木馬程式）就是駭客用來入侵受害者電腦的一種工具。

derive：不及物動詞，衍生出；導出[（+from）]。 文中「bacterially-derived 」，是指「從細菌上衍生的」。

side effect：名詞，（藥物等的）副作用。例句：Medicines sometimes have unpleasant side effects. （藥物有時具有令人不快的副作用。）

自由時報-980711

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