首页
登录
职称英语
[img]2018m1x/ct_eyyjsbz2017c_eyyjsbreada_0027_201712[/img] Getting a cold or
[img]2018m1x/ct_eyyjsbz2017c_eyyjsbreada_0027_201712[/img] Getting a cold or
游客
2024-08-10
5
管理
问题
Getting a cold or catching the flu is a common complaint for people every year. In fact, people usually catch between two and five colds each year. No one enjoys the accompanying symptoms: the sore throat, running nose, constant sneezing and headaches. Unsurprisingly, cold medication has become a big business. People spend billions of dollars to combat this recurring problem. We see the number and variety of over-the-counter medicines each time we enter a pharmacy. Is a cure for the common cold possible? The answer seems to be both yes and no.
First of all, the common cold itself is not a single disease. Any of two hundred different viruses could be responsible for the symptoms of a cold. Developing a vaccine for the common cold would literally mean having to develop hundreds of vaccines.
Additionally, some cold viruses have the ability to change their molecular appearance. Thus, even though our body may become immune to a certain cold virus this winter, by next winter our antibodies will probably not recognize it.
However, one family of viruses, the rhinoviruses, seems to account for almost 40% of all colds. Therefore, scientists have been focusing their research on this family of virus es in the hopes that treatments targeting rhinoviruses will result in a drastic decrease in the number of colds people get. In the late 1990s, researches experienced some initial success. Biologists developed a treatment, an anti-viral molecule called BIRR4, which prevented the binding of the virus to cells in the nose. This binding is an essential first step to start a viral infection and, were it preventable, many of the infectiors would be bypassed. For the next few years, the Pharmaceutical giant Boehringer tried to make this treatment commercially viable. Unfortunately, they found to their dismay that this treatment only worked just prior to getting a cold or in the first stages of infection when most people do not yet realize anything is wrong. As a possible treatment for a cold, it was severely limited and so in 2000, Boehringe dropped the BIRR4 project.
Another difficulty in finding a cure for the common cold is that the cold virus does not actually cause our cold symptoms. Indeed, by the time we start to show cold symptoms, the viral infection is almost over. Most infections result in no symptoms at all. The symptoms that we get from a cold are, in reality, produced by our body’s immune response, not by the virus itself. Thus, some scientists are now suggesting targeting the body’s immune responses rather than the virus itself, as we do when we treat allergies. One medical researcher suggests that in order to find a cure for colds we must weaken our immune system’s response. Through a cocktail of certain drugs-interferon, ibupro-fen and chlorpheniramine-cold sufferers would be able to decrease the anti-inflammatory part of the immune response and get rid of their symptoms, while still allowing their body to fight off the remaining viral infection. Ibuprofen and chlorpheniramine are both inexpensive and available over the counter. Unfortunately, however, a single dose of interferon is about $ 200 and is as yet unavailable in large over-the-counter quantities.
Though at times it seemed that a cure was already tantalizingly close, this process of infection and our body’s response to it is clearly more complicated than previously guessed. Undoubtedly, the search for a cure for the common cold will continue. What form this eventual cure will take, though, is anyone’s guess.
Questions 56 to 60
Complete the table using no more than three words for each blank.
[br]
选项
答案
molecular appearance
解析
(第三段第一句为“Additionally,some cold viruses have the ability to change their molecular appearance”。因此该空应填入molecular appearance。)
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3713399.html
相关试题推荐
[img]2018m1x/ct_eyyjsbz2016j_eyyjsbreadd_0150_201712[/img]Itisobvioustha
[img]2018m11s/ct_eyyjsbz2017c_eyyjsbreada_0027_201809[/img]Gettingacoldor
[img]2018m11s/ct_eyyjsbz2017c_eyyjsbreada_0027_201809[/img]Gettingacoldor
[img]2018m11s/ct_eyyjsbz2017c_eyyjsbreada_0027_201809[/img]Gettingacoldor
[img]2018m11s/ct_eyyjsbz2017c_eyyjsbreada_0027_201809[/img]Gettingacoldor
[img]2018m1x/ct_eyyjsbz2017c_eyyjsbreada_0027_201712[/img]Gettingacoldor
[img]2018m1x/ct_eyyjsbz2017c_eyyjsbreada_0027_201712[/img]Gettingacoldor
[img]2018m1x/ct_eyyjsbz2017c_eyyjsbreada_0027_201712[/img]Gettingacoldor
[img]2018m1x/ct_eyyjsbz2016j_eyyjsbreada_0132_201712[/img]London,England—V
[img]2018m1x/ct_eyyjsbz2016j_eyyjsbreada_0132_201712[/img]London,England—V
随机试题
[originaltext]W:Hello,Steve?M:Hi,Veronica.What’sgoingon?W:Oh,mycar’
Morethanfiftyyearsago,theUnitedNationsdeclaredthatliteracyisaba
Iamoneofthemanycitypeoplewhoarealwayssayingthatgiventhechoice
CollegesportsintheUnitedStatesareahugedeal.AlmostallmajorAmeric
下列哪种疾病导致的咳嗽声音嘶哑样A.胸膜炎 B.声带疾患 C.纵隔肿瘤 D
甲给乙开了一张现金支票,乙将支票背书转让给丙,后甲发现被乙欺诈。但丙拿着支票向甲
以下关于海上货物运输合同解除的表述哪些是正确的?()A.船舶一旦开航后,托运人不
患者,男性,45岁,在某诊所做右下后牙固定修复体3年,近来义齿松动,口臭,右下后
投资项目决策分析与评价的基本要求包括贯彻落实科学发展观、资料数据准确可靠和()
[已过时]直流架空输电线路的导线选择要满足载流量及机械强度等方面的要求,还要对电
最新回复
(
0
)