Chapter 121: Successful Experiment
Chapter 121: Successful Experiment
Two months later.
Chen Chen stood quietly in the laboratory. His face was rather pale.
Before him, a little white mouse was ceaselessly paddling in a Morris water maze.
This little white mouse was agile in swimming. Although it looked a little confused, it always managed to find the right path quickly after some wrong attempts, finally locating the platform hidden underwater.
No one would be able to tell that these mice were showing signs of severe nerve damage just two weeks ago.
As Chen Chen observed Mouse No. 5 reaching the platform, he gently clicked the timer and said impassively, “28 seconds, 2 seconds faster than yesterday.”
Following that, Chen Chen started to fill in the experiment record:
“6-month-old genetically modified model mice were treated with surgical transplantation of cloned neural stem cells. They were also treated with myeloid triggering receptor 2 (Trem2) agonist interleukin 4 (IL-4) to induce microglial activation.”
Immunohistochemistry, western blotting, and quantitative fluorescence PCR were used to detect the expression of Trem2 at the protein and gene levels.
“The water maze experiment illustrated that the model mice showed cognitive function recovery in the water maze experiment.
“In this model, after IL-4 treatment, Trem2 expression increased, and the memory and cognitive impairment of model mice were greatly improved.
“Result: The activation of Trem2 may reduce the autophagy of microglia through inflammation.”
After that, Chen Chen bent over and caught the mouse that was resting on the platform. He dried it, then fixed it to the CT machine, fastening it so that its head could not rotate.
Then Chen Chen turned on the machine and the CT machine began scanning the brain structure of No. 5.
When he compared the new CT with the previous image, he saw that the mouse’s brain structure was much fuller than last week. It had undergone tremendous changes compared to two weeks ago.
If the mouse’s brain was said to be like a shriveled walnut two weeks ago, it had significantly filled out now, like a risen dough.
Chen Chen casually sorted this data into corresponding categories. Then, he glanced at the few remaining white mice in the cage that had exhibited the same behavior and he covered the cage.
After this, Chen Chen turned around, gripped the head of Mouse No. 5 in one hand and the tail in another hand, then tugged softly.
“Snap!”
There was a sharp snap. No. 5 died in his hand from rapid and effective cervical dislocation.
Chen Chen placed this mouse on the dissection table and started dissecting its brain.
After more than ten minutes, No. 5’s brain had been extracted. However, at this point, Chen Chen noticed that the brain of this mouse had not necessarily recovered well.
As Alzheimer’s had caused a large number of neuron deaths, many connective tissue masses had formed in the area where these nerve cells died. These tissue masses occupied the original space of the brain, so the brain could not be restored to its previous state.
“What a shame.”
Chen Chen shook his head and soaked this brain in a solution filled with formalin.
In the past three months, Chen Chen had used his usual cloning methods to clone this group of mice. At the same time, in these mice that similarly suffered from Alzheimer’s, he had applied a compound treatment method.
. Use the gene overexpression method of TOM1 protein to enhance the brain’s resistance to inflammation, thus gradually eliminating inflammation.
. Use the Solanezumab antibody developed by Eli Lilly to remove Amyloid β-Protein and amyloid deposits in the brain.
Although this drug had failed several clinical trials and was proven unable to treat Alzheimer’s disease, its ability to remove Amyloid β-Protein should still be recognized.
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Injecting neural stem cells extracted from cloned embryos and at the same time, using cytokines to activate G2 resting stem cells that were already in the brain to stimulate the brain to heal itself.
There was one last item — namely, in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, the microglia were first activated to actively engulf abnormally deposited proteins.
However, if the disease had entered the middle or even late stage, the opposite method was adopted to inhibit the activation of microglia, until the Solanezumab antibody had been used to clear most of the Aβ deposits before microglia activation.
This was the method that Chen Chen had adopted. Through the treatment of inflammation and neural stem cell transplantation coupled with the intervention of the brain’s own immune system, this compound method could completely suppress Alzheimer’s disease in the early and mid-term. The disease would not worsen and might even get better.
In truth, it was not that the actual medical world could not achieve this same effect. The only limitation was still the cloning part. Besides, the cost was another factor that restricted this treatment.
After all, just this set of treatment plans would already incur astronomical costs. If this was used in business, a course of treatment would be priced at millions of USD.
As for the steric effect caused by a large number of neuron deaths and the connective tissue occupying the brain, Chen Chen was powerless. Perhaps one good way to remove these connective tissues was by craniotomy.
In terms of NZT-48, due to the lack of time in addition to no solid progress, Chen Chen had stopped the experimentation.
Since the NZT-48 experiment had stopped, Chen Chen started to include his assistants and assigned relatively trivial tasks to them. This was how the experiment results could be so swiftly obtained.
Now that the results had been produced, Chen Chen was not hesitant anymore. He immediately asked his assistant to send in the old chimpanzees that they had prepared in advance.
The scientific community had long discovered that chimpanzees also suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, which was the same as that of humans. Therefore, before the experiment on the mice was completed, he had asked his assistants to make Alzheimer’s disease models of chimpanzees and to also clone these chimpanzees.
This would save them a lot of time.
Not only that, but Chen Chen had also ordered a member of the team, which was protecting his parents in Mainland China, to head to Shangdu, secretly extract Professor Wang Xi’s somatic cells, and bring them back so that he could clone Professor Wang Xi. A few months later, when Professor Wang Xi himself came to the research center, they could immediately use the cloned neural stem cells.
Chen Chen was going to such lengths as a way to repay Professor Wang Xi.
As he thought of this, Chen Chen was about to start the next step of the experiment when his phone rang.
Chen Chen frowned, picked up his phone, and saw that it was a call from the screenwriter of the new movie.
He left the laboratory to his assistant and walked out to answer the call.
“You’ve revised it? Got it. I’ll take a look at it later.”
The screenwriter had once again revised the script according to Chen Chen’s request and had sent it over to Chen Chen for review.
This was the task Chen Chen had entrusted to the Edwards family.
Chen Chen headed to his own office. Without him giving the order, Little X had already opened his mailbox and projected the received script onto the wall.
Chen Chen spent a few minutes reading through the entire thing, then nodded reluctantly.
The story of the script was set 3 years from the present. This was what Chen Chen had requested. After all, the USB drive only accepted movies that hewed closely to reality. It was safer to directly set it in the real world.
The main plotline concerned an unknown pharmaceutical company in North America. A researcher named Alexander discovered, by chance, a small chemical molecule that could completely inhibit Alzheimer’s.
Not only could this small molecule prevent tau tangles and Aβ deposition, but it also eliminated inflammation and completely ended all symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
This drug lay at the core of the story.
The plot itself was an old-fashioned story in which an unknown shady force caught wind of this from somewhere. To obtain a sample of the drug, they began to kidnap the colleagues of the protagonist. After discovering what was happening, the protagonist quickly ran away with the drug and was perpetually hunted down.
Chen Chen had sent back the script a few times before. In desperation, the screenwriter had removed certain parts where the technology or logic did not hold up too well, even though these parts were very dramatic and marketable.
Still, this time, the script almost met Chen Chen’s expectations.
It was a pity — Chen Chen did not expect Hollywood to work so slowly. It took two months just from scriptwriting to revision. No matter how fast they worked, they could not possibly put out a movie in the one remaining month.
Nonetheless, fortunately, Chen Chen had found a treatment method for Alzheimer’s. As long as it worked on the chimpanzees, Chen Chen could move it into the clinical trial stage.
With this in mind, Chen Chen, who was the investor, replied to the scriptwriter with a “pass”.
Now, they could officially begin filming the movie in Hollywood.