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  • What if you could use genetic engineering to stop humanity's most dangerous predator?

    如果我們能夠利用基因工程 來阻止人類最危險的威脅

  • The deadliest animal on the planet responsible for the death of billions -

    造成死亡數千億死亡, 是這個星球上最致命的動物

  • - the mighty mosquito.

    即強大的蚊子 除了作為其他疾病的宿主外

  • Along with other diseases, it plays host to malaria,

    它也是 "瘧疾" 地球上最瘋狂的寄生蟲之一的宿主

  • one of the cruelest parasites on earth,

    可能是人類歷史上,最大的殺手之一。

  • possibly the single biggest killer of humans in history.

    僅在2015年

  • In 2015 alone, hundreds of millions were infected.

    就有數以億計的感染, 且造成約五十萬人死亡。

  • Almost half a million people died.

    一項新技術可以幫助我們 根除瘧疾,

  • A new technology could help us eradicate malaria for ever.

    但這樣做,我們需要修改整個動物種群。

  • But to do so, we need to engineer a whole animal population.

    這不是一個假設問題, 基因改造的蚊子已存在於實驗室中。

  • This is not a hypothetical problem,

    我們應該使用這項技術嗎? 且瘧疾是否夠壞到讓我們願意冒這個風險呢?

  • The modified mosquitoes already exist in a lab.

    (開頭音樂)

  • Should we use the technology, and is malaria bad enough to risk it?

    瘧疾是由一種微生物所引起:瘧原蟲

  • [THEME MUSIC]

    一種非常怪異的單細胞微生物,

  • Malaria is caused by a group of micro-organisms.

    它們是完全依靠蚊子的寄生蟲 而瘧疾總是從叮咬開始的。

  • Plasmodia.

    在蚊子的唾液腺中,有成千上萬的孢子 正等待著藉由蚊子叮咬穿透你的皮膚,

  • Very weird micro-organisms, that consist of just a single cell.

    並在入侵後立即前往你的肝臟,

  • They're parasites that completely rely on mosquitoes.

    在那裡他們悄悄地進入大細胞中, 並躲過免疫系統的偵查。

  • Malaria always starts with an insect bite.

    他們會停留在該處長達一個月,不斷消耗活著的細胞,

  • In its salivary glands, thousands of sporozoites wait until the insect penetrates your skin.

    並轉變為他們的下一個型態:像水滴般裂殖體

  • Immediately after invading you, they head for the liver,

    它們不斷增殖,產生數千計的個體

  • where they quietly enter big cells and hide from the immune system.

    然後迸發出細胞。

  • For up to a month, they stay here, in stealth mode, consuming the cells alive and changing into their next form -

    因此,成千上萬的寄生蟲進入血液中

  • small, drop-like merozoites.

    去尋找他們下一個受害者 - 紅血球。 為了不被注意,他們將自己包裹在

  • They multiply, generating thousands of themselves,

    被他們殺死的細胞的細胞膜中,

  • and then burst out of the cells.

    想像一下!

  • So thousands of parasites head into the bloodstream to look for their next victims -

    從內而外殺死他人, 然後以他們的皮膚作為偽裝,殘酷!

  • Red blood cells.

    它們現在猛烈攻擊紅血球, 在他們裡面不斷繁殖直到他們爆裂

  • To stay unnoticed, they wrap themselves in the membranes of the cells they killed.

    然後尋找更多的紅血球, 且這個循環重複一遍又一遍。

  • Imagine that,

    大量的死細胞形成大量的有毒廢料 其會造成強大的免疫反應

  • killing someone from the inside,

    造成類似流感的症狀,

  • and then taking their skin as camouflage.

    像是高燒、出汗和發冷、 抽搐、頭痛,有時嘔吐和腹瀉。

  • Brutal.

    如果瘧疾穿過了血腦屏障 它可能會導致昏迷、神經損傷或死亡。

  • They now violently attack red blood cells,

    而現在,寄生蟲現在準備要撤離了。

  • Multiplying inside them until they burst, then finding more red blood cells.

    當另一個蚊子叮咬被感染的人, 他們就搭上順風車了,

  • This cycle repeats over and over

    此一循環又可重新開始。

  • Pieces of dead cells spread lots of toxic waste material,

    在2015年,會導致胎兒 可怕的先天缺陷的茲卡病毒

  • which activates a powerful immune response causing flu-like symptoms.

    迅速蔓延到全球各地的新區域。

  • Among the symptoms are high fever, sweats and chills,

    它也是由蚊子所傳遞的。

  • convulsions, headaches and sometimes vomiting and diarrhea.

    蚊子是人類疾病的理想傳遞者

  • If malaria reaches the blood-brain barrier, it can cause coma, neurological damage, or death.

    他們已經存在了至少2億年 除了他們有萬億隻外

  • The parasites are ready for evacuation now.

    一個體一次可以產下高達300個卵 他們實際上是不可能被根除的

  • When another mosquito bites the infected human, they get a ride.

    且是完美的寄生蟲計程車。

  • The cycle can start over.

    但是今日,我們有一個新的革命性的技術, 將使我們能夠最終贏得戰爭

  • In 2015, the Zika virus,

    CRISPR (常間回文重複序列叢集) 在人類歷史上第一次,我們有工具進行

  • which causes horrible birth defects if it infects pregnant women,

    快速,大規模改變整個物種, 依照我們的喜好改變他們的遺傳信息

  • spread rapidly into new areas around the globe.

    所以與其攻擊孤立的昆蟲群體,

  • It too is carried by a mosquito.

    為什麼不改變傳播疾病的媒介?

  • The mosquito is the perfect carrier for human diseases ,

    利用基因工程,科學家

  • They've been around for at least 200 million years,

    成功創建 免疫瘧疾寄生蟲的蚊子品系

  • there are trillions of them,

    通過增加專門針對瘧原蟲新的抗體基因

  • and a single one can lay up to 300 eggs at a time.

    這些蚊子永遠不會傳播瘧疾 但只是改變遺傳信息是不夠的

  • They are practically impossible to eradicate,

    該修改會將僅由半數的後代繼承

  • and the perfect parasite taxi.

    因為大多數基因具有 兩個基因組版本作為失效保護

  • But today, we have new revolutionary technology

    所以在兩個世代後, 最多只有一半的後代會帶有修改的基因。

  • that could enable us to finally win the war against them.

    因此在數十億蚊子的種群中,

  • CRISPR.

    他們將很難有所作為。

  • For the first time in human history,

    一種被稱為基因驅動的 基因工程方法解決了這個問題

  • we have the tools to make fast, large-scale changes to entire species,

    他會強迫新加入的基因成為顯性 並在接下來的世代中

  • changing their genetic information as we please.

    幾乎完全地複寫掉舊的基因

  • So, instead of attacking isolated groups of insects,

    受益於這個方法,99.5% 的基因修改蚊的後代 會帶有抗瘧疾的基因。

  • why not just change the types that transmit diseases?

    如果我們釋放出足夠的改造的蚊子 到野外與普通蚊子交配,

  • Using genetic engineering,

    抗瘧疾的基因將會擴散的十分快速

  • Scientists successfully created a strain of mosquitos that are immune to the malaria parasite,

    由於新的基因成為蚊子群集的永久特徵,

  • by adding a new antibody gene that specifically targets plasmodium.

    瘧原蟲就會失去它的大本營。

  • These mosquitoes will never spread malaria.

    科學家希望這種變化能足夠迅速, 以至於它們無法改變的夠快去適應它

  • But just changing genetic information is not enough.

    瘧疾就可能就會幾乎消失。

  • The edits would only be inherited by half the offspring,

    如果考慮到每年有約50萬兒童因它死亡,

  • because most genes have two versions inside the genome as a fail- safe.

    則從本影片開始至此已有大約五名孩童死亡。

  • So after just two generations, at most only half of the offspring would carry the engineered gene.

    一些科學家認為,我們應該盡早用該技術 而不是更晚才開始。

  • In a population of billions of mosquitoes,

    此外蚊子自己大概也會從此獲得好處,

  • They would hardly make a difference

    畢竟攜帶寄生蟲對牠們也沒有助益。

  • A genetic engineering method called the gene drive solves this problem.

    而且這也許只是第一步,

  • It forces the new gene to become dominant in the following generations,

    瘧疾可能只是個開始。

  • overpowering the old gene almost completely.

    不同的蚊子還攜帶登革熱和茲卡病毒、

  • Thanks to this twist, 99.5% of all the engineered mosquitoes' offspring will carry the anti-malaria edit.

    蜱傳播萊姆病、蒼蠅傳播昏睡病、

  • If we were to release enough engineered mosquitoes into the wild to mate with normal mosquitoes,

    病蚤傳播鼠疫。 我們可以挽救數百萬人的生命,

  • The malaria-blocking genes would spread extremely quickly.

    並防止在一個令人難以置信的規模上的苦難

  • As the new gene becomes a permanent feature of the mosquito population,

    那麼,為什麼我們還沒這樣做呢?

  • plasmodium would lose its home base.

    首先,CRISPR 編輯

  • Scientists hope that the change would be so fast, they could not adapt to it quickly enough.

    才誕生4年左右,所以直到最近, 我們還不能將其做的足夠快速和容易。

  • Malaria could virtually disappear.

    而且這必須有合理的關切。

  • If you take into account that almost half a million children are killed by it every year,

    歷史上從未有過,人類有意識地, 在如此巨大規模下,改變自由生活的生物體的遺傳訊息

  • about five have died since this video started.

    一旦我們這麼做,

  • Some scientists argue that we should use the technology sooner, rather than later.

    就沒有回頭路。所以它必須被做對,

  • The mosquitoes themselves would probably only profit from this.

    因為編輯大自然,可能造成不良的後果

  • They don't have anything to gain from carrying parasites.

    雖然,在瘧疾這種特殊情況下, 風險也許是可以接受

  • And this might only be the first step - malaria might just be the beginning.

    因為遺傳修飾不會對整個基因組 產生大的變化。

  • Different mosquitoes also carry Dengue fever and Zika

    它只是改變了一個非常特殊的一部分。

  • Ticks transmit lyme disease,

    而在這裡的最壞的情況是

  • Flies transmit sleeping sickness,

    它可能不管用或是 寄生蟲以更糟的方式適應。

  • Fleas transmit the plague.

    這裡還有許多的爭論。

  • We could save millions of lives, and prevent suffering on an unbelievable scale.

    像基因驅動一樣強大的技術,需要被小心關切處理,

  • So,why haven't we done this yet?

    但在某些時候,我們必須自問:

  • For one, CRISPR editing is barely four years old,

    那是否是不道德的, 當不使用這種技術時,每天將有1000兒童死亡。

  • so until very recently, we just couldn't do it as fast and easily.

    人類必須決定在未來幾年內該如何行動。

  • And there are valid concerns.

    而在此例中,此項技術極度需要公眾討論

  • Never before have humans consciously changed the genetic code of a free-living organism on this scale.

    你有什麼想法?

  • Once we do it, there is no going back.

    該影片 由Patreon上觀眾的捐款而成為可能。 如果您想幫助我們

  • So it has to be done right,

    做出更多像是這個影片的影片 並獲得不錯的獎勵作為回報,

  • because there could be unwanted consequences if we set out to edit nature

    你可以在這裡這麼做。 我們真的很感激。

  • In the specific case of malaria though,

    如果你想了解更多關於基因工程的話題 我們有另外一些關於CRISPR和基改生物的影片,

  • the risk might be acceptable since the genetic modification doesn't make a big change in the overall genome,

    而如果這對你太生物了, 這裡是一個有關太空的播放列表。

  • It only changes a very specific part.

  • The worst case scenario here, is probably that it might not work,

  • or that the parasite adapts in a negative way.

  • There is still much debate,

  • Technology as powerful as gene drive needs to be handled with a lot of care.

  • But at some point, we have to ask ourselves,

  • Is it unethical to not use this technology,

  • when everyday, one thousand children die?

  • Humanity has to decide how to act on this in the next few years.

  • The public discussion is way behind the technology in this case,

  • What do you think?

  • This video was made possible in part by viewer donations on patreon.

  • If you want to help us make more videos like this and get nice rewards in return,

  • you can do so here.

  • We really appreciate it.

  • If you want to learn more about the topic of genetic engineering,

  • we have another video about CRISPR and GMO's.

  • And in case that's too much biology for you, here's a space playlist.

What if you could use genetic engineering to stop humanity's most dangerous predator?

如果我們能夠利用基因工程 來阻止人類最危險的威脅

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