In the year 1901, a woman called Auguste was taken to a medical asylum in Frankfurt. Auguste was delusional and couldn't remember even the most basic details of her life. Her doctor was called Alois. Alois didn't know how to help Auguste, but he watched over her until, sadly, she passed away in 1906. After she died, Alois performed an autopsy and found strange plaques and tangles in Auguste's brain -- the likes of which he'd never seen before.
在1901年, 有一名叫Auguste的女士 被送到法蘭克福的醫療精神病所。 當時Auguste 有幻覺, 甚至記不起最簡單的生活細節。 當時病人的醫生是Alois. Laois 不知道怎樣幫助她, 但他仍然照顧她, 直到她不幸地在1906年逝世。 病人死後,Alois 替她解剖, 發現Auguste腦部 有不尋常的班塊和物質纏結 他從未見過這種情況。
Now here's the even more striking thing. If Auguste had instead been alive today, we could offer her no more help than Alois was able to 114 years ago. Alois was Dr. Alois Alzheimer. And Auguste Deter was the first patient to be diagnosed with what we now call Alzheimer's disease. Since 1901, medicine has advanced greatly. We've discovered antibiotics and vaccines to protect us from infections, many treatments for cancer, antiretrovirals for HIV, statins for heart disease and much more. But we've made essentially no progress at all in treating Alzheimer's disease.
現在還有最令人苦惱的事情。 如果Auguste 換作今天仍活著, 我們比114年前Alois可以幫助她的實在不多。 Alois 就是Alois Alzheimer(阿茲海默)醫生。 而 Auguste Deter 就是第一位病人,確診現在稱為「阿茲海默症」。 自從1901年以來,醫學發展迅速。 我們發明了抗生素和疫苗預防傳染病丶 對抗癌症的療法丶愛滋病的藥物, 還有施德丁預防心臟病,多不勝數。 但是醫治阿茲海默症,還是停滯不前。
I'm part of a team of scientists who has been working to find a cure for Alzheimer's for over a decade. So I think about this all the time. Alzheimer's now affects 40 million people worldwide. But by 2050, it will affect 150 million people -- which, by the way, will include many of you. If you're hoping to live to be 85 or older, your chance of getting Alzheimer's will be almost one in two. In other words, odds are you'll spend your golden years either suffering from Alzheimer's or helping to look after a friend or loved one with Alzheimer's. Already in the United States alone, Alzheimer's care costs 200 billion dollars every year. One out of every five Medicare dollars get spent on Alzheimer's. It is today the most expensive disease, and costs are projected to increase fivefold by 2050, as the baby boomer generation ages.
我是一羣科學家的一員, 致力尋求這個病的療法,已經超過10年。 所以我常常都想找到療方。 阿茲海默症現在影響全球4千萬人。 到了2050年,這個病還會影響1.5億人-- 順便一提,在座很多人也會包括在內。 如果你想活到85歲或以上, 你患阿茲海默症的機會幾乎是1/2。 換言之,你很可能耗盡你的黃金歲月, 不是受到阿茲海默症的折磨, 就是照顧患這個病的友人或至愛。 僅僅在美國每年已經 要花費2千億美元照顧這類病人。 每5元的醫療保險 便有一元花在阿茲海默症治療。 這是今天花費最昂貴的疾病。 預計到了2050年,成本會增加5倍, 隨著嬰兒潮一代變老。
It may surprise you that, put simply, Alzheimer's is one of the biggest medical and social challenges of our generation. But we've done relatively little to address it. Today, of the top 10 causes of death worldwide, Alzheimer's is the only one we cannot prevent, cure or even slow down. We understand less about the science of Alzheimer's than other diseases because we've invested less time and money into researching it. The US government spends 10 times more every year on cancer research than on Alzheimer's despite the fact that Alzheimer's costs us more and causes a similar number of deaths each year as cancer.
這樣可能令你吃驚,簡單來說, 這個病是我們這一代 醫療、社會遇到的最大挑戰。 但我們較少關注這個問題。 今日全球十大的致命原因, 只有阿茲海默症是不能預防、 治愈或者甚至減慢惡化。 我們認識這個病比其他病症貧乏。 因為投資了很少時間和金錢來研究它。 美國政府每年花费在癌症研究 比在阿茲海默症的高10倍有多。 儘管我們花在阿茲海默症費用較多, 而且毎年的死亡數字跟癌症相若。
The lack of resources stems from a more fundamental cause: a lack of awareness. Because here's what few people know but everyone should: Alzheimer's is a disease, and we can cure it. For most of the past 114 years, everyone, including scientists, mistakenly confused Alzheimer's with aging. We thought that becoming senile was a normal and inevitable part of getting old. But we only have to look at a picture of a healthy aged brain compared to the brain of an Alzheimer's patient to see the real physical damage caused by this disease. As well as triggering severe loss of memory and mental abilities, the damage to the brain caused by Alzheimer's significantly reduces life expectancy and is always fatal.
這個病資源缺乏的主要原因: 人們還未醒覺到這個病的嚴重。 因為只是少數人知道是不夠的, 而是每個人都如是: 阿茲海默症是一種病,而我們可以治好它。 在過去114年的大部分時間, 所有人包括科學家, 誤以為年老引致阿茲海默症。 我們以往認為老年病是 是衰老過程中不可避免的現象。 但是只要看看這一幅圖 比較一個健康的老人腦部 和阿茲海默症病人的腦部, 來認識這個病對身體做成的傷害。 還引致嚴重失憶和心智能力退化, 阿茲海默症損害病人腦部, 明顯地降低病人的預期夀命, 更往往足以致命。
Remember Dr. Alzheimer found strange plaques and tangles in Auguste's brain a century ago. For almost a century, we didn't know much about these. Today we know they're made from protein molecules. You can imagine a protein molecule as a piece of paper that normally folds into an elaborate piece of origami. There are spots on the paper that are sticky. And when it folds correctly, these sticky bits end up on the inside. But sometimes things go wrong, and some sticky bits are on the outside. This causes the protein molecules to stick to each other, forming clumps that eventually become large plaques and tangles. That's what we see in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
還記得一個世紀前, Alzheimer醫生在Auguste腦部, 發現異常的塊狀和物質纏結。 差不多過了一個世紀,我們仍然所知不多。 今日我們知道它是用蛋白質分子製成。 你可以把蛋白質分子想像成一張紙, 常常用來折疊精巧的摺紙作品。 紙面佈滿粘性小點, 如果摺得正確,那些小點最後留在作品裡面。 可是有時摺疊出錯,有些粘性小點留在外面。 這樣令到蛋白質分子互相粘著一起, 變成一塊,最後結成大塊和纒結。 阿茲海默病人的腦部就是這樣。
We've spent the past 10 years at the University of Cambridge trying to understand how this malfunction works. There are many steps, and identifying which step to try to block is complex -- like defusing a bomb. Cutting one wire might do nothing. Cutting others might make the bomb explore. We have to find the right step to block, and then create a drug that does it.
我們在劍橋大學花了10時間, 想了解這種錯誤機能的原理。 但有很多步驟, 若要找出那一個步需要停止很複雜。 好像在拆除一個炸彈一樣。 剪去一條電線未必有用。 但是再剪下一條,可能引起炸彈爆炸。 我們必須找到關鍵的一步加以制止, 然後對症下藥。
Until recently, we for the most part have been cutting wires and hoping for the best. But now we've got together a diverse group of people -- medics, biologists, geneticists, chemists, physicists, engineers and mathematicians. And together, we've managed to identify a critical step in the process and are now testing a new class of drugs which would specifically block this step and stop the disease.
直到最近,我們把大部分時間 花在剪斷迴路,希望得到好結果。 但是現在我們聯合不同背景的人-- 有醫生、生物學家丶遺傳學家丶化學家等等。 大家一切找出那個重要的步驟, 現正試驗新藥,將專門阻止它, 然後打退疾病。
Now let me show you some of our latest results. No one outside of our lab has seen these yet. Let's look at some videos of what happened when we tested these new drugs in worms. So these are healthy worms, and you can see they're moving around normally. These worms, on the other hand, have protein molecules sticking together inside them -- like humans with Alzheimer's. And you can see they're clearly sick. But if we give our new drugs to these worms at an early stage, then we see that they're healthy, and they live a normal lifespan. This is just an initial positive result, but research like this shows us that Alzheimer's is a disease that we can understand and we can cure.
現在由我來給你看其中最新的結果。 實驗室以㚈的人從未看過。 現在讓大家看看影片,我們把蟲用作新藥試驗後, 發生了什麼事。 這是健康蟲, 你可以看到它們正常地周圍移動。 但是這批蟲 身體內的蛋白質分子卻粘著一起-- 就如患有阿茲海默症的人類。 很清楚看到牠們是病了。 但如果我們在這些蟲患病初期給予新藥, 牠們便會康復,並生存到常規壽命 這只是初步的正面結果,不過類似的研究 證明我們可以了解阿茲海默症,還可以治好它。
After 114 years of waiting, there's finally real hope for what can be achieved in the next 10 or 20 years. But to grow that hope, to finally beat Alzheimer's, we need help. This isn't about scientists like me -- it's about you. We need you to raise awareness that Alzheimer's is a disease and that if we try, we can beat it. In the case of other diseases, patients and their families have led the charge for more research and put pressure on governments, the pharmaceutical industry, scientists and regulators. That was essential for advancing treatment for HIV in the late 1980s. Today, we see that same drive to beat cancer. But Alzheimer's patients are often unable to speak up for themselves. And their families, the hidden victims, caring for their loved ones night and day, are often too worn out to go out and advocate for change. So, it really is down to you. Alzheimer's isn't, for the most part, a genetic disease. Everyone with a brain is at risk. Today, there are 40 million patients like Auguste, who can't create the change they need for themselves. Help speak up for them, and help demand a cure.
等了114年, 終於有希望在以後的10至20年 打敗阿茲海默症。 為了繼續燃點希望和最終擊敗這個病, 我們需要援助。 不是需要像我這班科學家。 而是需要你的幫忙。 提高對阿茲海默症是疾病的認知; 如果我們肯嘗試,必定能夠打敗它。 至於其他病例, 病人和家人帶頭要求做更多的研究, 施加壓力給政府丶藥劑業丶 科學家和監管機構。 這對於1980晚期,改善HIV治療非常重要的。 今天也見到同樣的幹勁去打擊癌症。 但阿茲海默症病人常常不能表達自己的意見。 病人家屬--隱形受害人,日以繼夜照顧病人, 再走出來推動改革,通常已經疲憊不堪。 所以現在真是只靠你了。 阿茲海默症並不全部是遺傳病。 每個有腦的人都有危險。 今日有將近4千萬好像Auguste的病人, 他們不能替自己的需要推行改革。 請替他們發聲, 要求治療的良方。
Thank you.
多謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)