基因兴奋剂是否“亮相”北京奥运会？

转基因的奥运会运动员？
Genetically Modified Olympians?

Gene doping
基因兴奋剂

On the eve of the Beijing Olympics, we examine the prospect of athletes using gene therapy to enhance their performance—and of catching them if they try.

      奥运会日益临近，我们分析参赛运动员使用基因治疗技术提高他们运动成绩的可能性，如果运动员真这样做了，我们能抓住他们么？

FOR as long as people have vied for sporting glory, they have also sought shortcuts to the champion’s rostrum. Often, those shortcuts have relied on the assistance of doctors. After all, most doping involves little more than applying existing therapies to healthy bodies. These days, however, the competition is so intense that existing therapies are not enough. Now, athletes in search of the physiological enhancement they need to take them a stride ahead of their opponents are scanning medicine’s future, as well as its present. In particular, they are interested in a field known as gene therapy.

      只要人们在竞技体育中追求荣誉，他们同时就会寻求通往冠军领奖台的捷径。通常情况下，找到这些捷径依赖于医生的帮忙。毕竟兴奋剂的使用大多数只不过是把现有的治疗技术应用于健康的运动员。然而，现在的体育竞争太激烈了，以至于即使使用当前的治疗技术都不足以帮助运动员获胜了。现在那些想通过提高生理条件来战胜对手的运动员，除了想依赖目前的医疗技术外，也开始寻觅医疗领域的新突破。这些运动员尤其对基因疗法感兴趣。

Gene therapy works by inserting extra copies of particular genes into the body. These extra copies, known as “transgenes”, may cover for a broken gene or regulate gene activity. Though gene therapy has yet to yield a reliable medical treatment, more than 1,300 clinical trials are now under way. As that number suggests, the field is reckoned to be full of promise.

      基因疗法的工作原理在于把特定基因的额外拷贝植入到体内。这些叫做“转基因”的额外拷贝能覆盖损坏的基因或者调节基因活动。虽然基因疗法还没有产生可靠的治疗效果，但是目前仍有超过1300多个的临床试验在进行之中。这个庞大的数字仿佛表明基因疗法的前景一片美好。

As far as sport is concerned, the top transgene on the list, according to Jim Rupert, an anti-doping expert at the University of British Columbia, is the gene for erythropoietin. EPO, as it is known for short, is a hormone that regulates the production of red blood cells. It is already available as a drug (it was one of the first products of biotechnology companies in the late 1980s), and it has been used widely in endurance sports such as long-distance cycling. But if an athlete’s body could be stimulated to make more of it that would—from the athlete’s point of view—be better than taking it in drug form.

      来自英属哥伦比亚大学的反兴奋剂专家吉姆•鲁珀特说，就体育运动而言众多基因中最受关注的是红细胞生成素基因。红细胞生成素（简称EPO）是一种调节红细胞生成的荷尔蒙。EPO作为一种药品目前在市场上有售（它是上个世

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