Surgery Godfather
Chapter 1343 - 1017: Using Viruses as Tools

Chapter 1343: Chapter 1017: Using Viruses as Tools

"Will this case undergo surgery 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. Let’s find a time to discuss it formally. In the next few days, everyone should research, and gain a comprehensive understanding of this type of case."

Yang Ping didn’t plan to discuss it now because many people hadn’t done the research and lacked knowledge in this area. Discussions would seem weak and wouldn’t be very valuable.

So, Yang Ping had Song Zimo distribute the case information, asking everyone to take the time to carefully review it, and then select a time to gather in the meeting room for a serious discussion. After dealing with these matters, Yang Ping decided to visit Lu Xiaolu in the laboratory.

With so much happening recently, Yang Ping was worried that Lu Xiaolu’s emotions might be unstable, so he instructed Tang Shun to take good care of him, and he also tried to visit when he could, to let him feel the warmth of the team.

Guan Ruyan no longer appeared, and his social media accounts were also completely emptied, leaving no signs of activity. Some people said he went to the United States, as alumni from Nandu Medical University who are in the States saw him. It’s said they saw him delivering food. One time, his delivery was stolen on the street, and he sat down and wept. An alumnus, recognizing that he was Chinese, approached to ask if he needed help. To their surprise, the person turned out to be the once encountered Professor Guan. But the gentleman refused to admit he was Guan Ruyan, kept saying they had mistaken him for someone else, then stumbled away.

Regardless, Guan Ruyan had received the punishment he deserved.

Principal Ruo 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 also held the position of the director of Nandu First Affiliated Hospital. This incident not only impacted Nandu Medical University but also had a profound effect on the entire educational sector, sparking an academic integrity movement throughout the national universities. Some things take time and can’t be accomplished overnight.

After chatting with Lu Xiaolu for a while and asking about the current status of the experiments, Lu Xiaolu’s emotions were very stable. He was now almost entirely devoted to scientific research.

Ding Xinyu resigned from Nandu Medical University, taking up a position as a teacher at a vocational high school, a choice she made for herself. Lu Xiaolu respected her decision, and he often took the time to visit her and the child, occasionally helping with the child’s homework.

In research on tumor cell apoptosis, Yang Ping began to consider a new approach. He wanted to find a suitable virus to hybridize with the K factor, and then inject them into human blood. The blood would carry this special virus throughout the body to seek out tumor cells and kill them.

Using viruses as a tool, it has been tried, according to the literature—the oncolytic viruses are special viruses that operate on this principle, possessing the ability to replicate and a certain ability to kill tumors.

The discovery of oncolytic viruses was accidental. At the time, a cervical cancer patient was vaccinated with a rabies vaccine after being bitten by a dog. This vaccine is essentially a modified virus which unexpectedly killed the cervical cancer tumor cells upon entering her body, miraculously curing the patient’s cervical cancer.

However, this was a chance event, and afterwards, no one could unravel this mystery, nor unearth anything of value for the treatment of cervical cancer. Nevertheless, this event marked the beginning of the Chapter on using viruses to treat tumors.

In 1991, Martuza and others published an article in "Science" magazine, indicating that genetically modified HSV has a certain effect in the treatment of malignant glioma. Since then, oncolytic virus therapy using HSV has increasingly attracted attention in the medical community.

The principle is to genetically modify some naturally occurring viruses with relatively weak pathogenicity, turning them into special oncolytic viruses. They target tumor cells selectively, taking advantage of the inactivation or defect of tumor suppressor genes inside the target cells. Oncolytic viruses infect and replicate massively within tumor cells and eventually destroy them, while also stimulating an immune response to attract more immune cells to help continue killing residual cancer cells.

In recent years, research on oncolytic viruses has become increasingly extensive. The most in-depth studied oncolytic viruses include adenoviruses and Type I herpes simplex viruses, which have already entered the clinical trial phase.

But so far, there is still no research in the world that combines oncolytic virus with protein factors that initiate apoptosis of tumor cells. Yang Ping plans to start his experiments from this angle. His idea is now very clear: to transform viruses into tools, combine them with K-factor, and then let viruses carrying K-factor infect the targeted tumor cells, replicate and infect continuously, ultimately killing all the tumor cells.

However, what kind of virus is suitable for his modification objectives? This virus must have been in existence for a long time so that the human body can adapt to it without causing unexpected reactions. Moreover, the virus must be weak in its therapeutic capacity or, better yet, non-lethal, so as not to harm the human body.

M13 bacteriophage!

After screening various viruses in his mind, Yang Ping finally determined that the M13 bacteriophage is most appropriate for the K-factor tool. This virus often parasitizes bacteria or exists within the human body without harming it.

The M13 bacteriophage has an extremely slender shape, which is a single-stranded DNA packaged inside a cylindrical protein coat with a few different types of proteins at both ends. The whole M13 bacteriophage resembles a miniature, precision machine composed of protein and DNA.

The cylindrical bacteriophage’s sides and protein at both ends can adsorb different molecular substances, and different bacteriophages adsorb different molecules. Thus, it’s possible through experimentation to find the most suitable bacteriophage for combining with a particular molecule—for instance, finding a bacteriophage that can adsorb K-factor.

How to find such a specific bacteriophage?

The simplest method is to immerse bacteriophages in a beaker containing K-factor, then increase the solution’s acidity to wash away bacteriophages that cannot bind with K-factor. By repeating this process multiple times, the remaining bacteriophages are those that can adsorb K-factor.

Of course, this method is the most clumsy, primitive, and simplistic. If one employs cutting-edge genetic engineering techniques and uses genetic engineering to alter the proteins at both ends of the bacteriophage, it is possible to create bacteriophages that can bind different molecules. Moreover, the proteins on the sides of bacteriophages also have adsorption capabilities, which means that using different combinations can create many bacteriophages. The K-factor can be attached to either the ends or the sides, significantly increasing the likelihood of experimental success.

Yang Ping wrote down his thoughts on an A4 paper and handed it to Lu Xiaolu. After reading it, Lu Xiaolu was astonished. Professor Yang’s breadth and depth of knowledge were astounding—who else would break through the barriers between different fields and come up with such a fanciful idea?

"Let’s start over with this approach!" Yang Ping instructed Lu Xiaolu.

Lu Xiaolu felt it was a pity to discard the previous research results: "This means we have to start from scratch. Isn’t this approach too radical?"

Yang Ping shook his head: "No, realizing a wrong path has been taken and changing direction in time might be a good thing."

"Then I’ll give it a try. In this case, your experiment is precisely in my field of expertise. Back in Germany, I did research on bacteriophages and oncolytic viruses. I remember that a team at Heidelberg University was working on the apoptosis mechanisms of tumor cells, but I don’t know why after so many years, they have not come together to research?" Lu Xiaolu was very puzzled.

"Some thinking habits are hard to overcome, due to both subjective and objective reasons. The barriers between professions enhance these thinking habits. For instance, the pathogenesis of Castleman’s disease has always been thought to be based on interleukin-6. Much research has been conducted around it, each from different perspectives, and the troubling thing is that everyone seems to see a glimmer of hope, which results in going further and further down the wrong path. No one ever considers that the mTOR signaling pathway might be more correct. It’s like with cars: when everyone’s energy and financial resources are focused on improving engines, very few are researching electric motors, whether subjectively or objectively, it is impossible to change direction," Yang Ping explained to Lu Xiaolu.

"That’s why I think it takes a lot of courage for you to change directions now," Lu Xiaolu said.

What Lu Xiaolu didn’t know was why Yang Ping could easily start over; it’s because he had an advantage others did not: the experimentation cost in the System Space Laboratory was extremely low. This allowed Yang Ping not to worry about other factors and to proceed as he wished.