tkworld Chapter 1466 Major Progress
Chapter 1466 Major Progress
Chapter 1466 Major Progress
Eight o'clock in the morning, at the research institute.
As soon as Yang Ping entered the building, he saw Tang Shun standing at the elevator entrance, holding a stack of printed documents. His expression was somewhat strange, as if he had good news to share, or perhaps he was hesitating about whether or not to.
"Professor, Weber didn't go home last night."
Yang Ping frowned: "Staying up all night again?"
"Did he stay up all night?" Tang Shun followed him. "He was planning to stay up all night last night, but Mainstein forced him to go back."
Yang Ping quickened his pace, walked through the corridor, and pushed open the door to the Weber Laboratory.
Weber is not here.
Petri dishes and reagent bottles were neatly arranged on the lab bench. The microscope eyepiece was still open, and the notebook next to it was turned to the latest page, filled with densely packed data. Yang Ping walked over and glanced at the records. The handwriting was somewhat messy, but every number was written clearly, including the time point, operating procedure, and observation results.
Yang Ping said nothing. He continued to peruse Weber's notebook, page by page, meticulously recording every point in time. The last page, dated 5:23 AM, read: "Neuron differentiation rate in the homogenate group was 32.7%, compared to 5.1% in the control group, a highly significant difference (p<0.001). The hypothesis has been preliminarily verified and needs to be replicated."
Yang Ping closed his notebook and stood in front of the lab bench for a while.
"Is he done?" Tang Shun asked.
"It's done." Yang Ping handed the notebook to Tang Shun. "The preliminary data is very good. The differentiation rate of the homogenate group is more than six times that of the control group. Arrange for someone to help him repeat the process so he can get some rest."
"it is good."
Yang Ping walked out of Weber's laboratory and down the corridor to his office. As he passed Mainstein's office, the door was ajar, and he could hear the sound of keyboard typing coming from inside. He peeked out and saw Mainstein sitting in front of his computer, the screen displaying rows of mass spectrometry data peaks. His fingers were flying across the keyboard, twice as fast as usual.
"Mannstein." Yang Ping pushed open the door and went in.
Mannstein looked up, his expression excited, like an explorer who had just discovered the entrance to a treasure trove.
“Professor, I reanalyzed the mass spectrometry data of those eight spinal cord injury patients last night,” Mainstein stood up and turned the screen toward Yang Ping. “Look here, the expression level of the unknown factor is highly correlated with the expression levels of the other three proteins, with correlation coefficients all above 0.8. This is not a single protein at work at all; it is a signaling network, a complete molecular machine.”
Yang Ping leaned closer to the screen, looking at the densely packed scatter plots and correlation coefficients. Each point represented a patient; the horizontal axis represented the expression level of an unknown factor, and the vertical axis represented the expression level of another protein. The points were tightly clustered around a diagonal line, like a string of beads.
"What are these three proteins?" Yang Ping asked.
Mainstein brought up another page with detailed information on the three proteins. Yang Ping read through it line by line, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper, not because there was a problem, but because the information fit his hypothesis so perfectly.
The first protein is a transcription factor, known to regulate the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells. The second protein is a cell surface receptor, known to mediate intercellular signal transduction. The third protein is an extracellular matrix protein, known to provide a scaffold and pathway guidance for cell migration.
“The different modules of the repair program,” Yang Ping said slowly. “The first is the execution module, which directs the stem cells to do their work; the second is the communication module, which transmits the start signal; and the third is the navigation module, which tells the cells where to go. Three-dimensional guidance, stem cell differentiation, and apoptosis activation by K therapy are all here.”
Mainstein nodded vigorously: "That's what I think too. These three proteins and the unknown factor form a tightly coupled signaling network. If any one of them has a problem, the repair process will be affected. This also explains why some people recover well from the same injury while others recover poorly. It's not because they don't have enough unknown factors in their bodies, but because the efficiency of the entire network is different."
Yang Ping sat down opposite Mainstein.
“If we can find a way to activate the entire network,” he said, “instead of just focusing on one protein, the results could be much better.”
“Yes!” Mainstein’s eyes lit up. “It’s like playing the piano. You can’t just press one key; you have to press a chord. Individual proteins are notes, but the whole network is the music.”
Yang Ping said, "This analogy is good. Please organize this finding and present it at the meeting this afternoon. Also, please draw a pathway diagram showing the interaction between these three proteins and the unknown factor. We need a clear model."
Mainstein pointed to the bottom right corner of the computer screen, where a software interface was loading. "It's already drawing. I'm using a new pathway analysis software that can visualize the interactions between proteins. The graph should be ready around noon."
Yang Ping's phone vibrated. He looked at it and saw that it was an email from Sisi.
"You guys continue, take a break, I need to reply to an email." Yang Ping stood up and returned to his office.
He turned on his computer, opened Sisi's email, which was a revised review article with a small note added below the title: "Professor Yang, I have added the three articles you mentioned and revised the section on microglia and macrophage markers. Please review it."
Yang Ping quickly skimmed through it. The little girl's learning ability was astonishing; she had corrected all the problems he had pointed out last time, and the newly added content was of very high quality. She had not only read those three papers, but also compiled a summary table of several key data points, which she placed at the end of the paper as an appendix.
He replied with a brief email: "Significant progress, good literature reading ability, but data interpretation needs to be strengthened."
After sending it out, he glanced at the summary table again; the data was accurate. For a fifteen-year-old, achieving this was already quite remarkable. But he wouldn't say "that's already quite remarkable," because saying so wouldn't do her any good. She's still young; what she needs is a standard, not comfort.
The regular meeting started promptly at 2 PM.
The meeting room was packed with people, and the atmosphere was noticeably different from last week. Back then, everyone was racking their brains over the issues of temperature exposure time and CO concentration, but today, everyone had an irrepressible excitement on their faces, like a group of miners who had discovered a gold vein but hadn't yet struck gold.
Tang Shun was the first to stand up and walk to the projection screen.
"Today's meeting has only one topic: the hypothesis that Professor Yang proposed yesterday, which we will call the 'Embryo and Repair Unified Hypothesis'. Mainstein, Weber, and I have done some preliminary verification, and now we will report the results."
He pressed a button on the remote control, and a circuit diagram appeared on the screen.
When Yang Ping saw the diagram, his breath hitched. He knew Mainstein was drawing diagrams, but he hadn't expected it to be this good. The diagram was densely packed with dozens of proteins and genes, connected by lines of different colors, forming a complex network. At the center of the network was the unknown factor, radiating outwards with three main lines, each leading to one of three different functional modules: the migration module, the proliferation module, and the differentiation module.
“This is a repair process signal network diagram drawn by Mainstein based on mass spectrometry data and bioinformatics analysis,” Tang Shun pointed to different areas on the diagram. “Red represents the execution module, which directs stem cell proliferation and differentiation; blue represents the communication module, which transmits damage signals and initiation instructions; and green represents the navigation module, which provides path guidance for cell migration. The three modules work together to complete tissue repair.”
A murmur of discussion broke out in the conference room.
Mainstein raised his hand to add: "This network is not static. We analyzed samples at different time points after the injury and found that the network activation is phased. The first phase is the activation of the communication module, which is completed within minutes to hours after the injury; the second phase is the activation of the navigation module, which lasts from hours to days; and the third phase is the activation of the execution module, which lasts from days to weeks. The whole process is like a carefully choreographed symphony, where each instrument plays when it should play and stops when it should stop."
Looking at the diagram, at the dense lines and nodes, Yang Ping suddenly thought of a word: harmony. Not deliberate harmony, not artificially designed harmony, but a spontaneous, intrinsic harmony, honed through millions of years of evolution. The human body doesn't need commands; it knows what to do. The doctor's role is not to issue orders, but to remove obstacles, allowing this process to run smoothly.
Tang Shun switched to the next slide, “Weber’s homogenate experiment showed that the damaged tissue homogenate could activate the entire network, not just upregulate unknown factors. We used single-cell sequencing technology to analyze the treated stem cells and found that the expression of more than two hundred genes changed, and these genes happened to belong to those three functional modules.”
A heatmap appeared on the screen, with red representing upregulated gene expression and green representing downregulated expression. More than two hundred genes, like colorful lights, formed three distinct color blocks on the graph.
Tang Shun's voice carried a hint of admiration.
There was a moment of silence in the conference room. Weber's chair was empty, with a white lab coat draped over the back.
Yang Ping looked at the empty chair. "Tang Shun, go to Weber's house this afternoon, bring some fruit, tell him the experimental data is very good, let him rest assured and come back tomorrow."
"it is good!"
Next was Mainstein's presentation. He explained in detail the three proteins highly correlated with the unknown factor, clearly outlining the structure, function, and interactions of each. His PowerPoint presentation was as beautiful as ever, with pathway diagrams, scatter plots, bar charts, and heatmaps, each meticulously designed with harmonious color schemes and clear annotations.
Einstein concluded, "Therefore, we now have a clear hypothesis: after injury, the damaged tissue releases an initiation signal, activating the communication module; the communication module transmits instructions to the navigation and execution modules through signaling molecules such as unknown factors; the navigation module provides path guidance, telling stem cells where to go and where to go; the execution module directs stem cell proliferation and differentiation to complete tissue repair. All three modules are indispensable; if any one of them malfunctions, the repair will fail."
He paused, then looked around at everyone in the conference room.
"If this hypothesis is confirmed, our understanding of tissue repair will undergo a fundamental transformation. In the past, we thought that repair was accomplished by a single magical molecule or cell, but now it seems that repair is a systematic, multi-modal, and highly synergistic process. We cannot just focus on one target; we need to consider the entire network."
Yang Ping continued, "Maninstein is right. This also explains why many therapies that work well in the lab fail in clinical practice. It's because we only activate part of the network, while other parts may still be shut down. It's like playing the piano with only one key pressed; there's a sound, but it's not music."
The sound of notes being taken could be heard in the conference room.
Yang Ping continued: "In the next phase, Mainstein will be responsible for figuring out all the nodes and connections in the network; we need to know the complete picture of this network. Weber will be responsible for verifying the activation conditions and regulatory mechanisms of the network at the cellular level. Tang Shun will be responsible for coordinating all the work to ensure that multiple tasks proceed simultaneously. In addition, Lu Xiaolu will be responsible for finding evidence from clinical data to see if there are any clues in existing cases that fit this hypothesis."
Everyone nodded in unison, and each of them quickly took notes in their notebooks.
The meeting lasted an hour and a half, and it was almost four o'clock when it ended.
Yang Ping did not rest and went straight to the neurosurgery department.
Lin Xiaoyu's treatment had been going on for two weeks, and this was the first evaluation point. When Yang Ping arrived, Xu Zhiliang was already standing in front of the X-ray reading light, with several key neurosurgeons and Lin Xiaoyu's parents beside him.
"The film is out?" Yang Ping walked over.
Xu Zhiliang nodded without saying a word and turned on the film viewing light.
Two MRI scans hung side by side on the light. The one on the left was from when treatment began two weeks ago, and the one on the right was from a follow-up scan done today. Yang Ping's gaze swept back and forth between the two images several times before settling on one.
The enlargement of the pons has not worsened and remains largely unchanged compared to two weeks ago. More importantly, the enhancement signals within the tumor have weakened, indicating a decrease in blood supply and reduced tumor activity.
"The tumor has shrunk," Yang Ping said calmly, but he had an indescribable feeling in his heart.
“It’s shrunk… by about… eight percent.” Xu Zhiliang pointed to the comparison area between the two films. “The progress… isn’t huge, but… the direction… is… right.”
Lin Xiaoyu's father stood beside her, staring intently at the two films. His hands trembled slightly, and his lips quivered, but he couldn't utter a word. Lin Xiaoyu's mother had already covered her mouth.
“Professor Yang,” Lin Xiaoyu’s father finally spoke, his voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible, “does this mean… it’s effective?”
Yang Ping turned around and looked at him.
"It's effective! But not a cure, just a preliminary effect. The tumor has shrunk by eight percent, which means that K therapy has an inhibitory effect on Xiaoyu's tumor. But this is just the beginning, and we need to continue treatment and observation. Some people will continue to improve on this basis, while others will stagnate. All we can do now is to keep going and see how things go."
Lin Xiaoyu's father nodded vigorously, his eyes reddening, but he didn't cry. He reached out and held Yang Ping's hand for a long time.
"Thank you, Professor Yang."
Yang Ping said, "Don't thank me. It was Xiaoyu's own body that fought the battle. We just helped her out."
As we walked out of the neurosurgery department, Xu Zhiliang followed.
“Professor, your… hypothesis, I… heard Tang Shun… mention it.” Xu Zhiliang’s voice was slow, but each word was clearly enunciated. “If… it really is… like this, then… our… understanding of… brainstem… gliomas… will also… have to… change.”
Yang Ping stopped and looked at him.
"You said."
“Gliomas…are difficult to treat because…they…hijack…the repair process.” Xu Zhiliang used the word “hijack,” and although he spoke haltingly, the meaning was clear. “Tumors…use…the signaling pathways of the repair process…to…grow, to…evade the immune system. K therapy…is effective because…it…re…corrects…the hijacked…program…back to normal.”
Yang Ping looked at him, his eyes showing surprise as well as approval.
“Your idea is excellent,” he said. “It may apply not only to brainstem gliomas but also to other types of tumors. Write it down, compile it into an opinion piece, and submit it to Neuro-Oncology.”
Xu Zhiliang paused for a moment, then nodded, a blush creeping onto his face.
"Okay, I...I'll try. Shall we continue chatting on WeChat?"
"Okay, let's continue."
(End of this chapter)