科學家傻眼了，這種印度食材居然能治療癌症

Scientists have come up with a potential new way to treat neuroblastoma, the most common kind of cancer in infants, by targeting it with nanoparticles loaded up with an ingredient of the spice turmeric.

科學家最近研究出了可以治療成神經細胞瘤（嬰幼兒時期多發的一種癌症）的一種潛在新方法，利用攜帶薑黃的納米顆粒來消除目標瘤。

Turmeric is more often used to add flavour to curries, but the curcumin chemical it contains has shown promising progress in tests in destroying neuroblastoma tumour cells resistant to other drugs.

薑黃通常被加進咖喱添加風味，但它所含的薑黃色素在消滅對許多藥物顯示出抗性的成神經細胞瘤細胞的試驗中表現出了可喜的成績。

If scientists can work out how to adapt this into a full and safe treatment, it would have the benefit of being less toxic and unpleasant for patients than traditional alternatives like chemotherapy – which is especially important when you're dealing with young kids.

如果科學家能研究出如何將此應用於全面安全的治療，那麼許多面臨傳統治療如化療風險痛的病人將能享受到副作用更小的治療方法——當病人是兒童時更顯重要。

"High-risk neuroblastoma can be resistant to traditional therapy, and survival can be poor," says lead researcher Tamarah J. Westmoreland, from the University of Central Florida.

“高風險成神經細胞瘤對傳統治療方法會表現出抗性，病人存活機率也很低”，來自中弗羅裏達大學的主要研究員，塔瑪拉J·西莫蘭德說道。

Using curcumin to fight cancer isn't a new idea, but it's difficult to get the chemical into drugs because of its low solubility and poor stability. Nanoparticles could fix that.

利用薑黃色素來抗癌並不是什麼新想法，但由於它溶解度和穩定性都很低，因此製成藥物十分困難。納米顆粒倒是可以解決這個難題。

Even better, the nanoparticles were more effective against the type of cells usually most resistant to conventional drugs.

更值得慶幸的是，納米顆粒在對抗那些對傳統藥物顯示出抗性的細胞尤爲有效。

As neuroblastoma is usually very difficult to treat, that's a promising start for these spicy nanoparticles. Not only is it largely resistant to anti-cancer drugs, it's also known to cause health problems after successful treatment, including hearing loss and other disabilities. It also often returns after treatment.

成神經細胞瘤很難治療，對這些辣味納米顆粒來說，目前進展初期還是有很大希望的。因爲成神經細胞瘤不僅對大多數抗癌藥物都有抗性，而且治療成功後仍舊會造成健康問題，包括聽力受損和其它殘疾症狀，而且可能會復發。

If we can develop an effective nanoparticle approach to fighting neuroblastoma, it would be yet more evidence of the potential of treating disease at the smallest possible scales: nanoparticles have previously been shown to help kickstart the human immune system to help fight cancer, for example.

如果我們能研究出有效的通過納米顆粒的方法對抗成神經細胞瘤，那麼對小範圍治療疾病的可能性也提供了更多證據：比如，之前的一些研究已經顯示納米顆粒能幫助恢復人的免疫系統來對抗癌症。

"We are hopeful that in the future, nanoparticles can be utilised to personalise care to patients and reduce the late effects of therapy," says Westmoreland.

“在未來，我們希望能利用納米顆粒爲病人定製化服務，減少治療的後遺症。”西莫蘭德說道。

（翻譯：Cas.）