在6600萬年前的恐龍化石中也發(fā)現(xiàn)了癌癥

在6600萬年前的恐龍化石中也發(fā)現(xiàn)了癌癥

A type of cancer that still afflicts humans has been found in a dinosaur fossil that was unearthed in Canada, according to experts.

據(jù)專家介紹，在加拿大出土的一塊恐龍化石中發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種至今仍困擾人類的癌癥。

The fossil, which was found at the Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta, is of a small hadrosaur that was “common in the world 66-80 million years ago.” It contains Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH), described as a “rare and sometimes painful disease that still afflicts humans, particularly children under the age of 10,” according to a statement from Tel Aviv University.

這具化石是在阿爾伯塔省南部的恐龍公園發(fā)現(xiàn)的，屬于一種小型鴨嘴龍，“在距今有6千6百萬到8千萬年前的世界很常見”。它含有朗格漢斯細(xì)胞組織細(xì)胞增多癥(LCH)，根據(jù)特拉維夫大學(xué)的一份聲明，LCH被描述為“一種罕見的、有時(shí)令人痛苦的疾病，至今仍然折磨著人類，特別是10歲以下的兒童。”

“The micro-CT produces very high-resolution imaging, up to a few microns,” one of the study’s co-authors, Dr. Hila May, said in the statement. “We scanned the dinosaur vertebrae and created a computerized 3D reconstruction of the tumor and the blood vessels that fed it. The micro and macro analyses confirmed that it was, in fact, LCH. This is the first time this disease has been identified in a dinosaur.”

“微型CT可以生成高達(dá)幾微米的高分辨率圖像。”該研究的共同作者之一希拉·梅(Hila May)博士在聲明中說。“我們掃描了恐龍的椎骨，創(chuàng)建了一個(gè)計(jì)算機(jī)三維重建的腫瘤和血管喂養(yǎng)它。微觀和宏觀分析證實(shí)，它實(shí)際上是LCH。這是首次在恐龍身上發(fā)現(xiàn)這種疾病。”

The size and shape of the cavities in the fossil are what attracted the attention of the researchers, May added.

梅補(bǔ)充說，化石中洞的大小和形狀吸引了研究人員的注意。

“They were extremely similar to the cavities produced by tumors associated with the rare disease LCH that still exists today in humans,” May explained. “Most of the LCH-related tumors, which can be very painful, suddenly appear in the bones of children aged 2-10 years. Thankfully, these tumors disappear without intervention in many cases.”

梅解釋說:“它們與罕見的LCH相關(guān)腫瘤產(chǎn)生的空洞極為相似，LCH在今天的人類中仍然存在。”“大多數(shù)與lch相關(guān)的腫瘤會(huì)讓人非常痛苦，它們會(huì)突然出現(xiàn)在2-10歲兒童的骨骼中。值得慶幸的是，這些腫瘤在許多情況下無需干預(yù)就消失了。”

The discovery is surprising, not only in that the disease survived more than 60 million years, but that it is not unique to humans.

這一發(fā)現(xiàn)令人驚訝，不僅因?yàn)檫@種疾病存活了6000多萬年，而且它并非人類獨(dú)有。

“These kinds of studies, which are now possible thanks to innovative technology, make an important and interesting contribution to evolutionary medicine, a relatively new field of research that investigates the development and behavior of diseases over time,” Tel Aviv University professor Israel Hershkovitz added in the statement. “We are trying to understand why certain diseases survive evolution with an eye to deciphering what causes them in order to develop new and effective ways of treating them.”

特拉維夫大學(xué)教授伊斯雷爾·赫什科維茨在聲明中說:“這類研究對(duì)進(jìn)化醫(yī)學(xué)做出了重要而有趣的貢獻(xiàn)。進(jìn)化醫(yī)學(xué)是一個(gè)相對(duì)較新的研究領(lǐng)域，研究疾病的發(fā)展和隨時(shí)間變化的行為。”“我們正試圖理解為什么某些疾病在進(jìn)化中幸存下來，并試圖找出導(dǎo)致它們的原因，以便開發(fā)出新的有效的治療方法。”

The study was published in Scientific Reports.

這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)表在《科學(xué)報(bào)告》上。