Anyone who reads gothic fiction will tell you that vampires arebad news.
读过哥特小说的人都会说吸血蝙蝠是个讨厌的东西。
People who read modern medical journals, however,might disagree-in fact, they think vampires just might help savelives.
而那些读现代医学杂志的人也许不同意这样的观点，他们认为吸血蝠能帮助拯救生命。
The kind of vampire I'm talking about is Desmodus rotundus, commonly known as the “vampirebat.”
我说的是圆形叶口蝠，俗称“吸血蝙蝠”。
Yep, these little creatures are real; and even though they almost never turn into suave Romanian counts to drool over, they do drool a lot themselves.
是的，这些小家伙是真实的，尽管它们几乎没有垂涎于温雅的罗马利亚人，但它们却经常流口水，
That's because their saliva is anessential part of their dining habits.
因为唾液是它们饮食习惯中的必不可少的一部分。
When a vampire bat latches onto, say, a steer, it needs to keep the blood flowing from the puncture made by its teeth.
当吸血蝙蝠缠在，比如一直公牛身上时，必须保持血液从牙齿咬开的孔流过。
That's achieved by a natural anti-coagulant in the vampire bat'ssaliva.
这是通过蝙蝠唾液里一种天然的抗凝血剂来实现的。
Despite what you see in the movies, vampire bats almost never drink human blood.
尽管你会在电影里看到，吸血蝙蝠几乎从来不吸人的血。
But people do suffer from other blood problems-a leading one being stroke.
但人类患有其它血液疾病—最重要的就是中风。
Stroke is caused by a clotting in the blood which stops the flow and can starve areas of the brain of oxygen.
中风是由于血液凝结成块阻碍其流动，从而导致大脑部分缺氧。
Doctors have generally broken up clots with a compound called tPA.
医生们已经找到了分解血液凝块的化合物，就是tPA。
TPA works okay,but it has dangerous side effects, and can even hurt brain cells.
TPA很有效，但具有危险的副作用，甚至会损伤脑细胞。
A better idea?
有更好的主意吗？
Bring in the bats, says researcher Robert Medcalf, a biochemist from Australia.
澳大利亚生物化学家，Robert Medcalf对蝙蝠进行研究。
Vampire bat spit contains a different compound, DSPA, which does the good things tPA does withfar fewer side-effects.
吸血蝙蝠的唾液中含有一种不同的化合物，DSPA，它能够帮助减少tPA引起的副作用，
DSPA is now being tried on patients who have suffered a stroke; the datashould be in within a year.
DSPA现在正在患有中风病人身上测试，结果将于一年内揭晓。
If it works, doctors might have found an unlikely friend–the vampire bat.
如果有效的话，医生们也许多一位意想不到的朋友—吸血蝙蝠。
