国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

Chinese geneticists have taken important steps in fighting the comeback of snail fever as some 13,000 genes of the parasitic worm schistosoma japonicum have been decoded.

"We have decoded about 60 to 80 per cent of the worm's genes. The analysis will help control the potentially fatal disease and develop new drugs, and effective vaccines could be innovated in a few years," said professor Han Zeguang, team leader at the China Human Genome Centre in Shanghai.

Nature Genetics will publish the full text of the two-year research led by a team of scientists from China Human Genome Centre and Shanghai Second Medical University in next month's issue.

The DNA research on the worm will improve understanding of the interactions between the worm and its host, the biomedical aspects of snail fever and invertebrate evolution.

Scientists have found the worm can encode mammalian-like receptors to assist maturation in humans or livestock. The worm can also modulate anti-parasite immune responses through inhibitors, molecular mimicry and other evasion strategies.

Schistosoma japonicum, one strain of schistosome, causes snail fever or schistosomiasis in humans and livestock in the Asia-Pacific region. The worm mainly lives in freshwater along the Yangtze River in Central and East China.

Carried by freshwater snails, the worm can penetrate human skin and then produce eggs in the liver to block blood flow. Chronic patients, who account for most of those contracting the disease, can experience high fever, weakness of the limbs and severe stiffness of the joints.

Snail fever was fairly prevalent until the 1950s, when rudimentary public health measures helped curb its spread. But it has been making a comeback and become one of the main public health challenges following the flood disaster along the Yangtze River in 1998.

According to Ministry of Health statistics for 2002, more than 810,000 Chinese were

Close

Today's Top News		Top National News
+Focus: China embarks on civil service reforms ( 2003-09-23) +Criticism about renminbi refuted ( 2003-09-23) +FMs meet for talks on co-operation ( 2003-09-23) +The short and not-so-sweet of it ( 2003-09-23) +Unions' role in protecting workers' rights recognized ( 2003-09-23)		+Investors hit pay dirt in search for minerals ( 2003-09-23) +Ten dead in Fujian flooding, 9 missing ( 2003-09-23) +Fresh food and scenery lures tourists to suburbs ( 2003-09-23) +Dry Tianjin taps into river for eighth time ( 2003-09-23) +Modern medicines to make use of Tibetan traditions ( 2003-09-23)