据英国每日邮报报道，长期以来，科学家一直致力于寻找能够使生命永葆青春的不老长寿药。目前，英国研究人员首次通过绘制出裸鼹鼠的基因结构，有望能揭晓这种动物长寿的秘密。
裸鼹鼠很难让人们联想到它是一种长寿动物，它的外形有点儿让人反感，全身光秃秃地不长毛发，且皮肤有皱纹，长着像蠕虫般的尾巴以及像海象一样突出的牙齿，然而它们的身体却非常地健康。
裸鼹鼠生活在东非，其寿命可达到30年，大约是普通老鼠寿命的7倍之多，并且它们对癌症具有免疫力。英国利物浦大学研究人员现首次完成对裸鼹鼠基因结构的绘制，希望能够理解这种神秘动物如何保持健康长寿。
该项研究负责科学家若奥-麦哲伦(Joao Magalhaes)博士称，裸鼹鼠能够有效地抵御疾病，尤其是癌症，通过对它进行深入研究，将提供为什么一些动物能够比其它物种更有效抵御疾病。我们希望能够使裸鼹鼠成为抵抗老化慢性疾病的首个实验模型。
生物探索推荐英文原文：
What's ugly, has a tail and holds the secret to eternal youth? Meet the naked mole rat
Scientists have long searched for an elixir to eternal youth.
But it's unlikely they thought it would come in the shape of the naked mole rat.
The animal is revolting looking - bald and wrinkly with worm-like tails and walrus-style teeth - but healthy.
These East African animals live for 30 years, seven times longer than a normal rat, and they seem to be immune to cancer.
Researchers at the University of Liverpool have just finished mapping the mole rat’s genome structure for the first time, in the hope of understanding what keeps them so healthy.
Lead scientist Dr Joao Magalhaes said: ‘The level of resistance these animals have to disease, particularly cancer, might give us clues as to why some creatures are more prone to disease than others.
'We want to establish the naked mole rat as the first model of resistance to chronic diseases of ageing.’
All good, so long as they can promise we don’t end up looking like the beast.
Nothing’s worth that - even living for ever.
