Chapter 1017 Using Viruses as Tools

Will this case be operated on here? Xia Shu was very interested, and he asked again.

Yang Ping nodded: "Of course, we need to prepare in advance and come up with the best plan in advance. Let's find a time to discuss it formally. In the next few days, everyone will check the information and get a comprehensive understanding of this case."

Yang Ping did not plan to discuss it now, because many people have not checked the information and lack knowledge in this area. The discussion will appear pale and powerless, and it will not be of any value.

So Yang Ping asked Song Zimo to distribute the case information, let everyone take time to take a closer look, and then choose a time for everyone to gather in the conference room to discuss it seriously. After dealing with these things, Yang Ping decided to go to the laboratory to see Lu Xiaolu.

With so many things happening recently, Yang Ping was worried that Lu Xiaolu might be emotionally unstable, so he asked Tang Shun to take care of him more, and he also tried to take time to see him so that he could feel the warmth of the team.

Guan Ruyan never appeared again, and all his social accounts were cleared and there was no sign of any activity. Some people said that he went to the United States, because alumni who graduated from Nandu Medical University had seen him in the United States. It was said that they saw him delivering food. Once, his food was robbed on the road, and he sat on the ground crying. The alumni saw that he was Chinese and went up to ask if he needed help. To the surprise of the classmate, this person turned out to be Professor Guan, but this gentleman refused to admit that he was Guan Ruyan, kept saying that he recognized the wrong person, and then stumbled away.

In any case, Guan Ruyan got the punishment he deserved.

President Rao took the initiative to resign to take responsibility for this matter, and Professor Su Qingyun was appointed as the president of Nandu Medical University and the dean of Nandu First Affiliated Hospital. This incident not only had a far-reaching impact on Nandu Medical University, but also on the entire education sector. A wave of academic rectification movement swept across colleges and universities across the country. Some things are a long way to go and cannot be accomplished overnight.

Yang Ping chatted with Lu Xiaolu for a while and asked about the current situation of the experiment. Lu Xiaolu was in a very stable mood. He now puts almost all his energy into scientific research.

Ding Xinyu resigned from Nandu Medical University and went to a vocational high school to be a teacher. This was her own choice. Lu Xiaolu respected her choice. Lu Xiaolu often took time to visit her and the children, and sometimes tutored the children's homework.

For the study of tumor cell apoptosis, Yang Ping began to think about a new route. He wanted to find a suitable virus, use the virus to chimera with K factor, and then inject them into human blood, so that the blood can carry this special virus to travel around the body to find tumor cells, and then kill the tumor cells.

Using viruses as tools, from the literature, this method has been tried by others. Oncolytic viruses use this principle. Oncolytic viruses are a special type of virus. They have the ability to replicate and have a certain killing ability against tumors.

The discovery of oncolytic viruses was an accident. At that time, a cervical cancer patient was injected with rabies vaccine because she was bitten by a dog. This vaccine itself is a modified virus. After the virus entered her body, it unexpectedly killed the tumor cells of cervical cancer, which miraculously cured the patient's cervical cancer.

But this was an accidental event. No one could solve the mystery later, and naturally no valuable things were found for the treatment of cervical cancer. However, it opened the chapter of using viruses to treat tumors.

1uza et al. published an article in the journal Science, which stated that transgenic HSV had a certain effect in the treatment of malignant gliomas. Since then, oncolytic virus therapy using HSV has attracted increasing attention from the medical community.

The principle is to genetically modify some viruses with weak pathogenicity in nature and make them into special oncolytic viruses. By using the inactivation or defects of tumor suppressor genes in target cells, oncolytic viruses can selectively infect tumor cells without harming normal cells. Oncolytic viruses replicate in large quantities in tumor cells and eventually destroy them. At the same time, oncolytic viruses can also stimulate immune responses and attract more immune cells to help continue to kill residual cancer cells.

In recent years, there have been more and more studies on oncolytic viruses. The most in-depth oncolytic viruses include adenoviruses and herpes simplex virus type I, which have entered the clinical trial stage.

However, there is no research in the world that combines oncolytic viruses with protein factors that initiate tumor cell apoptosis. Yang Ping plans to start his own experiments from this aspect. Yang Ping's idea is now very clear. Transform the virus into a tool, combine the K factor with them, and then let the virus with the K factor infect the target tumor cells, constantly replicate and infect, and finally kill all tumor cells.

But what virus is suitable for your transformation object? This virus must have existed for a long time, so that the human body can adapt and will not cause unexpected reactions. Secondly, this virus must have weak healing ability or no lethal ability, and will not cause harm to the human body.

M13 bacteriophage!

Yang Ping screened various viruses in his mind, and finally felt that the most suitable one for the K factor tool was the M13 bacteriophage. This virus often parasitizes bacteria or the human body, and is harmless to the human body.

The appearance of the M13 bacteriophage is very slender. It is a single-stranded DNA encapsulated in a cylindrical protein shell, with several other types of proteins at both ends. The entire M13 bacteriophage is like a microscopic protein and DNA composed of precision machines.

The proteins on the sides and ends of the cylindrical phage can adsorb different molecules, and different phages adsorb different molecules. In this way, the phage that is most suitable for binding to a certain molecule can be found through experiments. For example, a phage that can adsorb factor K can be found through experiments.

How to find such a specific phage?

The simplest method is to put the phage into a beaker containing factor K, then increase the acidity of the solution, wash away the phage that cannot bind to factor K, and repeat this many times. The phage that remains at the end is the one that can adsorb factor K.

Of course, this method is the most clumsy, primitive and simple. If cutting-edge genetic engineering technology is used to change the proteins at both ends of the phage, phages that can adhere to different molecules can be produced. In addition, the proteins on the sides of the phage also have adsorption capacity. In this way, many phages can be produced using different combinations, and factor K can adhere to both ends or sides, which significantly increases the success rate of the experiment.

Yang Ping wrote his ideas on an A4 paper and gave it to Lu Xiaolu. After reading it, Lu Xiaolu was very surprised. Professor Yang's breadth and depth of knowledge were amazing. Otherwise, how could he break through the barriers between various fields and come up with such a fantastic idea.

"Start again according to this idea!" Yang Ping told Lu Xiaolu.

Lu Xiaolu regretted the original research results: "This is equivalent to starting all previous research over again. Isn't it a bit too radical?"

Yang Ping shook his head: "No, it may be a good thing to change direction in time when you find that you are on the wrong road."

''Then I'll try it. In this case, your experiment is exactly what I am good at. When I was in Germany, I did research on bacteriophages and oncolytic viruses. I remember that there was a team at Heidelberg University studying the apoptosis mechanism of tumor cells, but I don't know why they didn't cooperate to study together after so many years? "Lu Xiaolu was very puzzled.

"Some inertia of thinking is difficult to overcome. There are subjective reasons and objective reasons. The barriers between professions have deepened everyone's inertia of thinking. For example, the pathogenesis of Castleman's disease has always been believed to be based on interleukin 6. Everyone has done a lot of research around it. Each research is from different angles. The terrible thing is that everyone's research seems to see a little hope, so they go further and further on the wrong path. No one ever thinks that the mTOR signaling pathway may be more correct. It's like a car. When everyone's energy and financial resources are all focused on improving the engine, few people go to study the motor. Whether subjectively or objectively, it is impossible to change the direction.

Yang Ping told Lu Xiaolu.

"So I think you need great courage to change the direction now." Lu Xiaolu said.

In fact, Lu Xiaolu didn't know that the reason why Yang Ping could start over at will was because he had a huge advantage that others didn't have: the cost of experiments in the system space laboratory was extremely low. This allowed Yang Ping to not consider anything else, just do it according to his own wishes.