[25]Pets on trial.

感谢收听,期待你对本期节目的评论留言哦～ Economists Science and technology Drug development Pets on trial[ˈtraɪəl] 试验 Household animals might make better research subjects than laboratory[ləˈbɒrətri] ones. Drug development is a risky-and costly-business. Many promising compounds [ˈkɒmpaʊnd]复合物fail to cut the mustard[‘mʌstəd]符合条件when put through clinical trials. One reason is that drugs which work on laboratory animals may not work quite so well in human tests. Being able to pick winners and losers as early as possible would save money, and the One Health Company, based in Philadelphia, thinks it may have found a way. It is offering to help pharmaceutical[ˌfɑ:məˈsu:tɪkl] 制药的firms test their wares [weə(r)]制品on sick pets. It’s first guinea [‘gɪni]pigs实验对象, as it were,will be dogs suffering from cancer. There are several benefits, says the firm. By treating animals with existing cancers, it hopes to dodge[dɒdʒ]回避a problem with modern animal research, which is that the ’model’ animals and diseases that are used to test drugs are not always good stand-ins替代物 for the natural illness. For example, mice used to test cancer drugs may have had their tumours[ˈtju:məz]肿瘤grafted [grɑ:ft]移植surgically['sɜ:dʒɪklɪ]手术 into their bodies, and their immune[ɪˈmju:n]免疫的systems knocked out with drugs or by genetic engineering. Another plus is that pet owners tend to be dedicated [ˈdedɪkeɪtɪd]专注的carers who are very knowledgeable about their four-legged companions and are likely to report even small changes in symptoms. Lab animals are checked far less frequently. Owners so far have been keen [ki:n]热心的: the company claims that 64% of those told about the scheme sign up, a very high proportion[prəˈpɔ:ʃn]比率. Perhaps the most useful aspect of pet clinical trials, however, is the lack of government regulations covering medical records. One Health has been able to get access to 98% of records on animals from hospitals—a number that is unheard for human medical records. That allows the firm to identify patients and tissue[‘tɪʃu:]组织samples, and recruit participants. Overtime, the firm hopes that pets will prove useful in diseases other than cancers. Horses, for instance, seem to be good proxies[ˈprɔksi:z]代替物for humans when it comes to arthritis[ɑ:ˈθraɪtɪs]关节炎. Cats, meanwhile, may prove instructive in breast-cancer research. For now, those who enrol登记 their pooches [pu:tʃ]狗get a double benefit. Fido[ˈfaidəu]狗does his bit for science. And while doing so he gets access to what are, One Health hopes, cutting-edge最前沿的cancer drugs. 歌曲：Souvenirs----Souf