Chapter 1458: Chapter 1086: Inexperienced

Recently, Professor Yang has launched several significant projects in a very short time, which inevitably makes everyone feel astonished.

Is Professor Yang an alien? His imagination is simply off the charts. In just a short period of time, he has proposed several extremely creative research directions, each one substantial, pushing forward the exploration of medical challenges.

In fact, besides solid knowledge, conducting scientific research also requires a rich imagination and a strong curiosity about the unknown world. This is necessary to turn what might be tedious research into interesting work, to tread an unconventional path in research, and to achieve some breakthrough results.

Even without discussing whether these research topics proposed by Yang Ping will be successful, these ideas are extremely revolutionary themselves and can provide rich inspiration for future researchers, opening a door to a new world for them.

The discussion continues, and everyone’s topics are becoming more refined and mature through repeated discussions and adjustments.

“You mean after the immunocytes collapse, some of the fragments under certain specific conditions might reassemble freely to form new, larger fragments? Like the K-factor being formed this way.” Lu Xiaolu asked, feeling that the idea was somewhat fanciful, something that had never been thought of before, and even more surprising happening in laboratory-grown cell culture.

Yang Ping nodded and replied: “In Earth’s ancient times, lightning or solar particles could stimulate some chemicals to form organic compounds. In the laboratory culture fluid, those gene fragments could completely undergo random recombination. However, this is just a hypothesis that needs rigorous experiments to confirm.”

Indeed, many scientific advancements start with a genius hypothesis, such as the double helix structure of DNA and the mosaic structure of cell membranes. These started with a genius hypothesis and were later proven correct by experiments.

“If this hypothesis holds, we will be able to establish a theory that unveils some of the offensive and defensive principles behind the immune system. Then, our entire research approach would be expanded, and the treatment of tumors would enter a freer realm,” Yang Ping added.

Yang Ping’s words significantly boosted everyone’s confidence, and they all secretly decided to give it their all.

Lu Xiaolu continued, “It’s necessary to work on multiple topics at the same time. The current shortcoming in immunocyte therapy is inadequate ability against solid tumors, like T-cell therapy. It works well against blood tumors, but not against solid tumors, because blood tumor cells float in the blood, and so do immunocytes. It’s like a naval battle where cells are like warships, clashing on the ocean platform. But in the case of solid tumors, immune cells facing tumors is like urban street battle, where warships cannot be effective.” Lu Xiaolu was already well-versed in tumor immunotherapy, so he was very familiar with these topics.

“Right, but oncolytic viruses don’t have these disadvantages, they can penetrate any solid tumor, and reach inside tumor cells. Thus, whether it’s blood tumors or solid tumors, oncolytic viruses face no barriers,” Professor Zhang Zhiwei shared his opinion.

“We should thoroughly research the internal and external conditions when K-factor was formed. After understanding these conditions well, we can unravel the process of K-factor creation,” Tang Shun said, as K-factor was discovered while cultivating tumor cells in the laboratory.

“Yes, if we can clearly study the formation mechanism of K-factor, we could later recombine similar biological factors in the laboratory,” Yang Ping affirmed everyone’s opinions, “Concerning virus therapy and cell therapy, let’s discuss the current international research progress.”

Lu Xiaolu, who specialized in tumor therapy, volunteered for the task of presentation:

“Cell therapy currently sees significant success in T-cell therapy, and I won’t delve much into its history. A team in the United States conducted clinical trials on patients with residual or recurrent brain malignant tumors, glioblastoma. Out of 19 patients who received oncolytic virus therapy, 16 survived more than a year, among them, 3 survived over five years, with their tumors shrinking and no recurrence. Whereas under traditional treatment methods, 80% of recurrent glioblastoma patients would die within a year. This clearly shows the great prospects of virus therapy, which has been proven.”

“As for the progress in virus therapy, the most advanced research by the Japanese involves a Type 1 herpes simplex virus recombined oncolytic therapy product. Type 1 herpes simplex virus has 3 key genes: a34.5 gene–a human self-protection mechanism where cells infected by the virus self-destruct to prevent the virus from spreading, however, a34.5 gene tries to prevent this situation, allowing the host cells to continue surviving. They used genetic technology to disable a34.5, allowing the virus to proliferate inside cancer cells. ICP6 gene–it produces enzymes that synthesize the virus’s DNA; if disabled, the virus cannot proliferate in normal cells, thus proliferating only in tumor cells. a47 gene–it has capabilities that make it hard for the immune system to detect the virus; if we delete this gene group, the virus loses its invisibility. Usually, cancer cells being part of the patient’s body, the immune system doesn’t see them as the enemy. However, once infected by a virus that lost its invisibility, the cancer cells carry ‘markers’, making them easily detectable by the immune system, making them a target of the immune system’s attack.”