Cyber Heroes

Xiangshan looked at Niyaguti in shock: "You mean, such embryos can survive? Animals and plants mixed together?"

"In the embryonic stage, living things are just a bunch of cells, and the tissues have just begun to differentiate." Niaguti spread her hands: "Because the size is small enough, it is enough to rely on the cells to passively absorb the surrounding nutrients, even if no organs have differentiated. Survival. However, as organs differentiate, organisms that are too distantly related will likely have problems."

Xiang Shan patted his head: "Is this... quite science fiction?"

"Science fiction is bullshit." Yawgmoth said disdainfully: "Research started decades before we were born, and you're telling me science fiction? Steampunk?"

"Strictly speaking...well." Niyaguti said: "Since the 1970s, scientists from all over the world have been studying heterogeneous chimeras, such as sheep-goat chimeras and rat-mouse chimeras. Twenty At the beginning of the first century, we focused on researching human-animal chimeras, hoping to create animals that could provide organ transplants. The company we collaborated with on the 'monkey' matter...that company in Central Yunnan's Primate Translational Medicine The institute is quite famous for its research on primate chimeras.”

Xiang Shan was shocked again: "Is there actually Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in our cooperative institution? No... this research is actually so early..."

He sincerely felt that this style of painting, which was a bit sci-fi, only came about after Yawgmoth made a major breakthrough in basic theory.

"The grafted plant is a kind of chimera. In fact, this phenomenon was first recorded by horticulturists." Niyaguti shook her head: "Not to mention plants, in the animal kingdom, natural chimeras also exist - including Humans. In the mother's uterus, fertilized eggs occasionally develop into different embryos, and then these embryos may be reintegrated before a certain stage. Many people are natural chimeras, but they will never know it in their lives. .”

"Of course, occasionally there will be strange situations - for example, some people's reproductive organs happen to come from their own fraternal twin brothers and sisters. When such people do a paternity test, they will always conclude, 'This child The result is that my biological father is my brother from the same mother."

"Compared to me, this kind of research has almost no technical content." Yawgmoth sneered at this: "Actually, chimera research relies on the fact that the immune system has not yet come online. I remember that the human-monkey chimera in vitro embryo was 20 days old. We all had to be killed before, right? Then research showed that traces of dendritic cells would not be detected in the fetus until after the twelfth week.”

"And at this stage, the fetal dendritic cells are not used to defend against the outside world, but to suppress the production of its own immune cells to prevent its own immune function and the mother from attacking each other."

Dendritic cells, a type of immune cell responsible for antigen presentation, can efficiently ingest, process, and present antigens. They are responsible for activating initial T cells and are the central link in initiating, regulating, and maintaining immune responses.

"To put it simply, in order to avoid being aborted, the immune system is in an 'immunity period' during the embryonic development stage. Contact with things at this time will almost never trigger an alarm. This is how the so-called chimeras survive." Yawgmoth continued. : "In fact, this 'weak alarm' situation will continue to a certain extent until after the baby is born. There is a theory that some people are prone to allergies because they live too cleanly during this period and their immunity The system 'whitelist' is not long enough."

Xiangshan felt that his concept of hygiene had been subverted: "So, 'You won't get sick if you eat it without cleanliness' actually has a scientific basis?"

Nia Guti warned: "Only for infants and young children...and it also means that they are prone to whitelisting really dangerous pathogens and may become sickly in childhood."

At this point, Xiangshan probably understood what Yawgmoth meant.

"You mean..."

"This is the optimal plan C." Yawgmoth said: "Find a way to reverse the life cycle of the immune system and temporarily return the immune system to the 'embryonic stage'. The drugs required for this technology are various targeted Dedifferentiation of immune cells induces signaling molecules. They are responsible for knocking instructions into the immune system—recalling the 'state of embryonic development.'"

Nia Gudi pondered for a moment: "The feasibility should not be low?"

Xiang Shan asked: "What about time?"

"The production and tissue division of immune cells is very vigorous and life activities are active, so the transformation will be very fast." Yawgmoth said: "I haven't done experiments yet, so I can't give an exact number. But it will probably happen within fourteen days. It can be completed within seven days - it is not impossible."

Xiang Shan held his head: "This is too fast..."

"And there is another benefit." Yawgmoth said: "Immune system life cycle reversal is a process. During this process, memory cells will also gradually eliminate the antigens they have recorded. Non-specific immune cells will produce more and more The slower. Their immunity will return to the embryonic stage after a while. There is no need to use a sterile ward or even to be hospitalized in the early stages of this reversal stage."

"Then these friends will find that the dietary allergies that have troubled them for many years have disappeared. But at the same time, the vaccinations in the past have been in vain."

"The drug..."

"It's just a few signaling molecules." Yawgmoth was very confident: "After I completed the basic theoretical research, this is the drug that is easiest to find a synthesis method."

Xiang Shan held his head in his hands: "God... is this a perfect plan?"

He almost wanted to stand up and high-five Yawgmoth.

However, the memory of being severely cheated just now made him instinctively alert.

Xiang Shan said: "Yog, let me confirm again... This drug should not cause the life cycle of other tissues to be reversed, right? For example... um, the nervous system? If the nervous system is reversed to infancy, no, reversed to Puberty is scary enough.”

"Theoretically, different factors should be used to issue 'instructions' to different tissue cells. Past experience also illustrates this point. To trigger this function, a single instruction is not enough," Yawgmoth thought: " Is it possible that a command set that can act on the whole body... exists?"

Xiang Shan said: "What about 'aging'?"

"Only some tissues have returned to their past state at the cellular functional level. At the microscopic level, the telomeres that control cell lifespan have not been replaced, and the traces caused by time still exist. At the more macroscopic level, the body as a whole will not change. Changes. The elderly who receive this therapy will at best become 'old people with some cell functions like fetuses'."

It's the end of the month, right...