时文限时阅读训练.docVIP

精品文档，助力人生，欢迎关注小编！ 时文限时阅读训练 多發性硬化症（Multiple sclerosis）是一种影响包括大脑、视神经和脊髓等中枢神经系统的疾病。来自哈佛大学附属研究院安·罗姆尼中心研究神经系统疾病的一群专家开始研究为什么多发性硬化症会随着季节的变化而变化——随着白天时间的变短而有所改善。 For patients and clinicians alike， its long been a mystery： Why do symptoms of multiple sclerosis （MS） seem to get better in the winter and worse in the summer？ A group led by Francisco Quintana and collaborators have found an explanation that could lead to a deeper understanding of the disease and more targeted treatment options for patients. By looking first broadly at possible environmental factors and then deeply at preclinical models of MS， the research team found that melatonin—a hormone involved in regulating a persons sleepwake cycle—may influence MS disease activity. The team reports its findings this week in Cell. “We know that for multiple sclerosis and most autoimmune diseases， both genetic and environmental factors play an important role， but in the last decade， most research has focused only on the genetic side of the equation，” said cocorresponding author Quintana. “But we wanted to see what environmental factors would reveal to us about this disease. We knew that MS disease activity changed with the seasons. What weve uncovered offers an explanation for why that is the case.” Quintana and his colleagues began by studying patients. The team found that during the fall and winter， the group of 139 relapsing remitting MS patients they studied experienced a significant improvement in symptoms—a phenomenon thats been observed in previous studies. The team then explored a variety of environmental factors that have been proposed as possibly linked to MS symptoms， including vitamin D levels， UV incidence， and upper respiratory tract infections. But the factor that was consistently associated with severity of MS symptoms was melatonin. Melatonin levels are known to correlate with the durations of days—during the longer days of the spring and summer， levels are lower; during the shorter day