中英對照讀新聞》Experimental Chewing Gum Could Reduce Coronavirus Spread實驗性的口香糖可減少冠狀病毒傳播

研究人員正在開發能夠減少COVID-19病毒傳播的口香糖。示意圖。（路透檔案照）

◎陳成良

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are working to create a special chewing gum that could help reduce the spread of COVID-19 by "trapping" the virus so a person can’t transmit it to someone else.

賓州大學的研究人員正在努力製造一種特殊的口香糖，這種口香糖可以透過「捕獲」病毒來幫助減少 COVID-19的傳播，這樣一個人就無法將其傳播給其他人。

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The gum contains plant-grown ACE2 proteins, which showed in laboratory studies to neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 virus. When researchers exposed saliva samples from COVID-19 patients to the modified chewing gum, they found the levels of viral RNA were "drastically reduced" to the point that the virus was almost undetectable, according to a study published in Molecular Today.

根據發表在《今日分子》期刊的研究報告，這種口香糖含有植物培養的「血管收縮素轉化酶2」（ ACE2） 蛋白，實驗室研究表明這種蛋白可以中和 SARS-CoV-2 病毒。當研究人員將 COVID-19 患者的唾液樣本暴露在改良的口香糖中時，他們發現病毒核醣核酸（ RNA） 的水平，「急劇下降」到幾乎無法檢測到病毒的程度。

The research is still in its early stages, and the researchers are working on getting permission to conduct a clinical trial in humans to determine if the gum is safe and effective.

該研究仍處於早期階段，研究人員正在努力獲得在人體中進行臨床試驗的許可，以確定口香糖是否安全有效。

新聞辭典

transmit：動詞，傳染、傳播、傳遞。例句：Iron transmits heat.（鐵能傳熱。）

neutralize；動詞，中和，抵消，使失效。例句：Acidity in soil can be neutralized by spreading lime on it.（在土壤上面撒石灰可以中和其酸性。）

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