分子生物學於臨床醫學之應用

Application of Molecular Biology in Clinical Medicine

生命現象乃由細胞內遺傳性基因所控制。基因經由複雜的調控機制來生產蛋白質，以執行生命現象。細胞是人體最小的生命單位，當細胞生理運作失常而表現出異常現象，稱之為疾病。控制生命現象的基因由核酸組成，執行生命現象的蛋白質、脂肪及醣類分別由氨基酸、酯酸類及單糖類組成。探討這些影響生命現象最小分子之間的互動關係，稱之為分子生物學。疾病如何形成（病因學）、如何診斷及如何治療，甚至如何預防，這些問題都在考驗人類對生命現象的分子層次的瞭解程度。即使在20世紀即將結束的今天，人類對生命現象的瞭解尚處於啟蒙階段，對癌症、病毒性疾病、老化、死亡及許許多多臨床常見的疾病，依然束手無策。本文將概括性地介紹分子生物學在病因、診斷及治療的臨床應用。

Life phenomenon is manipulated by inherent genes. Proteins sue expressed to carry out biological functions after a series of sophisticated gene regulations. Cell is the basic unit of life. When a certain event in the cell acts ”different”, the phenotype might be called ”disease”. Molecular biology is a discipline of studying the molecular events including gene regulation, gene expression and functions of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates in a cell. Understanding the molecular events occurring in a cell is crucial for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases. Unfortunately, there are a lot of human diseases, such as cancer, viral diseases and aging, which remain obscure. The application of molecular biology in medical science will be briefly described herein with respect to the etiology, diagnosis and treatment of clinical diseases.