Red Wine Compound Resveratrol Demonstrates Significant Health Benefits（参考译文）参考译文： 红酒中的白藜芦醇证实对人体有益 科学日报（2009年7月12日）报道：适量的酒精摄取量对人体有益处。少量至中等的摄入量---尤其是红酒---能减低致命疾病的几率，然后过量摄入可能导致多种器官受损。最近的一个对红酒多酚（尤其是白藜芦醇）的小型调查结果将会刊登在九月份的“酒精中毒：临床与实验研究” 及 “Early View” 杂志中。 “关于红酒的好处早在两个世纪前就有报道了”，昆士兰大学生物医学系教授 Lindsay Brown说：“随着媒体的发展，90年代初的法国悖论的故事就越多。然而，关于白藜芦醇的报道却很少见，直到1997年的一个研究发现了白藜芦醇能预防癌症，人们才开始认识白藜芦醇，并对该成分产生了浓厚的研究兴趣。 红葡萄酒中含有的生物活性化合物，包括黄酮，单体和聚合体黄烷- 3 -生命线，复杂混合物高度彩色花青素，以及酚酸和苯乙烯多酚，白藜芦醇。Brown 说，其中一些化合物中，特别是白藜芦醇，似乎对人体很有益处。 “广泛的好处是很明显的---预防癌症，保护心脏和脑部，预防衰老，预防炎症、糖尿病和肥胖症等多种疾病。” Brown 说，“为什么白藜芦醇这么普通的一个成分却能够有如此效果一直以来是一个迷，但现在自从科学家们研究发现了 Sirtuin 后，似乎找到了一个揭开谜底的途径。Sirtuin 是酶的一种，能够通过细胞核规范细胞成分的形成。仅仅白藜芦醇有这个功效吗？答案似乎不是肯定的，其他一些红酒成分和另外一些自然的成分如姜黄素有着相同的功效，然而，相对于其他一些成分，我们所知道的关于白藜芦醇的会更多一些。” 昆士兰大学药理学教授 Stephen Taylor 同意白藜芦醇是很重要的成分。 “我认为，红酒在西方是神秘和历史的象征。”他说，“当然，喝红酒也有很多的乐趣，也有心理上的优势---因为人们注重饮食健康。我们不会常常长年累月每天喝很多杯的蓝莓汁，但如果在一组人身上用这个做实验，相信十年后也会有同样的效果。 白藜芦醇是一种化学治疗癌症及保护心血管的潜在有效成分。 “白藜芦醇这种成分既能通过保护细胞免受伤害从而保护心脏，也能通过杀死细胞来预防癌症，这听起来似乎有点矛盾，”Brown 说，“这方面最可能的解释是，对低浓度细胞的激活使其存活，而同时对高浓度的细胞内置死忙信号，但这个解释仍需要在各个器官进行严格的证明。 白藜芦醇也能帮助预防衰老性疾病，如神经变性疾病，炎症，糖尿病和心血管疾病等。 “最简单的解释是，白藜芦醇打开细胞自身的生存途径，防止个体细胞的损害，”Brown说。“进一步的机制能帮助消除在人体内非常活跃的氧化剂，改善血液供应对细胞的供应状况。” 少量摄取白藜芦醇能作为一种改善心肺机制和神经细胞存活的保护剂，而高量则会增加细胞的死忙。 “造成差别的原因很可能是受激活细胞核中的 Sirtuins 的状况影响，” Brown 说，“低度激活可以有效延缓衰老，而高度激活可以加快细胞死忙进程。类似的结果可以从对白藜芦醇的高摄取量与低摄取量中看出来：低摄取量能保护细胞、减少对细胞的伤害，而高摄取量能预防癌症。” Brown 还说，总的来说，目前的科学研究正开始从200年前的报道去解释喝红酒对身体有益。“自然是一个化合物的宝库------这已经是一个老生常谈，但从白藜芦醇的研究中证明确实如此！我们需要发掘大自然中的化合物，并找出它们是否对人体有益。”
英文原文 "Reports on the benefits of red wine are almost two centuries old," said Lindsay Brown, associate professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Queensland and corresponding author for the study. "The media developed the more recent story of the French paradox in the early 1990s. However, studies on the actions of resveratrol, one of the active non-alcoholic ingredients, were uncommon until research around 1997 showed prevention of cancers. This led to a dramatic interest in this compound."
Red wine contains a complex mixture of bioactive compounds, including flavonols, monomeric and polymeric flavan-3-ols, highly colored anthocyanins, as well as phenolic acids and the stilbene polyphenol, resveratrol. Brown said that some of these compounds, particularly resveratrol, appear to have health benefits. "The breadth of benefits is remarkable – cancer prevention, protection of the heart and brain from damage, reducing age-related diseases such as inflammation, reversing diabetes and obesity, and many more," said Brown. "It has long been a question as to how such a simple compound could have these effects but now the puzzle is becoming clearer with the discovery of the pathways, especially the sirtuins, a family of enzymes that regulate the production of cellular components by the nucleus. 'Is resveratrol the only compound with these properties?' This would seem unlikely, with similar effects reported for other components of wine and for other natural products such as curcumin. However, we know much more about resveratrol relative to these other compounds." Stephen Taylor, professor of pharmacology at the University of Queensland, agreed that resveratrol is the "compound du jour." "I think that red wine has both some mystique and some historical symbolism in the west," said Taylor, "and of course, some various pleasures attached to its ingestion, all of which give it a psychological advantage edge, food-wise. Not many of us can or will eat a couple of cups of blueberries a day for years on end, but if we could do a population study for a decade or so on such a group, you might actually see similar results." Key points of the review include: "It sounds contradictory that a single compound can benefit the heart by preventing damage to cells, yet prevent cancer by causing cell death, said Brown. "The most likely explanation for this, still to be rigorously proved in many organs, is that low concentrations activate survival mechanisms of cells while high concentrations turn on the in-built death signals in these cells." ·Resveratrol may aid in the prevention of age-related disorders, such as neurodegenerative diseases, inflammation, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. "The simplest explanation is that resveratrol turns on the cell's own survival pathways, preventing damage to individual cells," said Brown. "Further mechanisms help, including removing very reactive oxidants in the body and improving blood supply to cells." ·Low doses of resveratrol improve cell survival as a mechanism of cardio- and neuro-protection, while high doses increase cell death. "The key difference is probably the result of activation of the sirtuins in the nucleus," said Brown. "Low activation reverses age-associated changes, while high activation increases the process of apoptosis or programmed cell death to remove cellular debris. Similar changes are seen with low-dose versus high-dose resveratrol: low-dose resveratrol produces cellular protection and reduces damage, while high-dose resveratrol prevents cancers."
In summary, noted Brown, current scientific research is starting to explain reports from the last 200 years that drinking red wine improves health. "It is a cliché that 'nature is a treasure trove of compounds,' but studies with resveratrol show that this is correct! We need to understand better the vast array of compounds that exist in nature, and determine their potential benefits to health." "There is one particular point that deserves fleshing out," added Taylor. "Resveratrol is largely inactivated by the gut or liver before it reaches the blood stream, where it exerts its effects – whatever they may be – good, bad, or indifferent. Thus, most of the reseveratrol in imbibed red wine does not reach the circulation. Interestingly, absorption via the mucous membanes in the mouth can result in up to around 100 times the blood levels, if done slowly rather than simply gulping it down. Of course, we don't know if these things matter yet, but issues like this are real and generally ignored by all."
|