by <unknown>
"Department of Neurology, Affiliated Central Hospital of Shangdu Jiao Tong University. Patient Wang Xi, first stage of Alzheimer's disease."
Chen Chen knew that Wang Wei's hypothesis was correct upon reading the sentence.
Around this same time last year, it was thanks to Professor Wang Xi's assistance that Chen Chen was able to make a resolute decision.
Chen Chen gently raised his right hand to caress a thick brass ring he wore on his left index finger.
As Chen Chen gently brushed its surface, he seemed to have activated a hidden mechanism in the ring. In an instant, the face of the ring suddenly opened up silently, revealing several transparent pills under it.
Chen Chen took one of the pills and swallowed it. He closed his eyes after and allowed himself to relax.
One second, two seconds, three seconds…
Phew!
The familiar sensation of having a fine grasp on all things in the world came to him in a rush. Chen Chen abruptly opened his eyes and began to recall everything he knew about Alzheimer's.
Alzheimer's was also commonly referred to as dementia back in the Mainland. It was a form of cerebral neurodegeneration that occurred upon reaching a certain age.
This form of disease may not appear lethal. It had been almost normalized due to how common it was. What most people did not know was that it was the second most significant disease in limiting the human lifespan, right under cancer.
There could be many causes for Alzheimer's disease, the most common factor being old age. From fifty-years-old onward, the rate of contracting it increased with each passing year. By the time a common person reached eighty years old, the odds of being diagnosed with it was up to forty percent.
There were many other contributing factors apart from old age including genetics, mental illness, head trauma, sometimes even widowhood, living alone, financial difficulties or drastic life events that could lead to the development of Alzheimer's.
Ermmm…
In other words, up to this point, the academic world had yet to pin down a definite cause for Alzheimer's disease.
The medical sciences community always believed that "Aβ deposition" and "abnormal phosphorylation of tau protein" were the main culprits of Alzheimer's disease. Following the development of certain drugs, the validity of these hypotheses began to be questioned.
The current consensus was that the "Aβ deposition" and "abnormal phosphorylation of tau protein" were merely a symptom of Alzheimer's instead of the source of it.
Aβ deposition referred to Amyloid β-Protein deposition, which was a form of intracellular pathology which could lead to mitochondrial damage. It may even lead to many fatal diseases such as apoptosis.
This deposition phenomenon first manifested in the cerebral cortex. It spread to the depths of the brain as the severity increased, eventually destroying the human brain.
Currently, among the six internationally recognized therapeutic drugs, almost all of them were acetylcholinesterase inhibitor drugs with just one of them being NMDA receptor antagonist which stood out as an outlier.
Simply put, even the medicine in developed countries could only serve to slightly slow down the disease and allow the patient to live for a few more years. It was not able to accomplish anything else beyond that.
Word was that there was a new drug for Alzheimer's disease in the China market. It was labeled as "The First Axial Biotherapeutics Drug In the World". The fancy name aside, it was just a drug that facilitated intestinal bacteria.
A discussion for another day.
With the current technological scope, the damage caused by Alzheimer's to the brain was still irreversible even after taking the related medications. This was because the primary cause of the disease was the death of a large amount of brain nerve cells.
In the later stages of the disease, the patient's brain would have completely shrunken to a point where there was barely a hint of conscience remaining. The way Chen Chen saw it, being alive but not having a conscience was as good as being dead. What was the difference anyway?
If he wanted to save Professor Wang Xi, he could not spare a moment longer.
Chen Chen quickly got up and went to the power control room while instructing, "Little X, download the first Rise of the Planet of the Apes for me."
Chen Chen came up with three solutions to treating Professor Wang Xi:
The first solution, which was also the easiest solution, was to use the USB drive and extract the details of the ALZ-112 drug in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
ALZ-112 was a virus with a specific genetic trait that was able to regeneratively repair neural circuits by infecting the brain accordingly.
Unlike the later developed ALZ-113, the ALZ-112 was not contagious, therefore, it would not reenact the pandemic scenario in the movie.
The flaw was that the ALZ-112 was only a temporary treatment for Alzheimer's disease. It would not completely cure it.
However, Chen Chen was not optimistic about the chances of the first solution working out since the USB drive was unable to extract living organisms. Viruses were considered a class of living organisms as well, therefore, he resorted to extracting information on ALZ-112.
The information only appeared very briefly in the movie. There was no guarantee that the data was complete.
The second solution in case the first failed, Chen Chen could try to shoot a movie on Alzheimer's. He could then extract the drug in his movie. This was a solution akin to cheating.
This would also be a completely new approach to Chen Chen's usage of the USB drive.
Naturally, Chen Chen figured that the odds of success were next to zero.
If this method proved to work out, could Chen Chen simply shoot a movie about energy generation and simply create a device similar to the ZPM in Stargate and easily achieve unlimited energy generation?
That would violate the laws of conservation of mass and energy.
Still, despite the almost nil chance of this solution working out, it was worth a shot.
While attempting the second solution, Chen Chen could simultaneously implement the third solution – Active Research.
Since Chen Chen still had the NZT-48 up his sleeve, which from previous experiments he had concluded had a certain degree of effect on Alzheimer's disease. If all else failed, Chen Chen could further delve into this aspect to achieve a breakthrough. This could also help add value to the neutral stem cell therapy research.
The human body possessed the natural ability to regenerate brain nerve cells but this ability slowly declined throughout the adolescent stages. By adulthood, a damaged central nervous system would no longer be able to regenerate on its own.
One of the causes of this was the lack of necessary cytokine stimulation. Additionally, the spaces left behind by the degraded dead cells become filled by other cells, thus creating a steric effect.
This was the root cause of Alzheimer's disease being irreversible.
However, the usage of neural stem cells could break this rule.
Chapter 119: First Solution was a Failure |
By the time Chen Chen stepped into the power control room, Little X had completed the download of Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes premiered in 2011. The plot of the movie was about the protagonist who invented a form of viral drug in an attempt to cure his father's Alzheimer's.
The principle of this drug was to infect the human brain through an artificially modulated virus, thereby regenerating and repairing the brain nerve in the process.
However, many people may have a difficult time understanding the principle of it. Take the following for example.
In 2015, German scientists discovered a special gene that was only present in modern-age humans and the close ones around them – ARGHAP11B.
This series of genes stimulated the reproduction of brain stem cells, allowing the brain cell to produce more neuron cells in the development process, thus contributing to advanced
cognitive abilities such as "thought" and "speech".
In other words, this genetic could very well be the reason that humans were able to break away from the food chain and ascend to the top of the hierarchy.
To further explore the workings of this genetic, the German scientists conducted an experiment: They injected these genetics into the embryo of mice via genetic engineering technology. They then began to observe if there were any changes in the mice which obtained the "fruit of wisdom".
The results proved to be gratifying. After these transgenic mice were born, they displayed a significant increase in brain capacity.
The brain of regular mice usually took on a smooth form, resembling a peanut. Under the influence of the human genetic, it had to be compressed and folded itself due to the increase in surface area. This resulted in a cortical folding similar to what was observed in human brains.
The above experiments proved that ARGHAP11B genetic played a crucial role in the development and evolution of the neural system.
(The only thing that was left unknown was whether the batch of mice made it out alive. If they did, perhaps there would be a reenactment of Rise of the Planet of the Mice in the decades or centuries to come. Hehe.)
The ALZ-112 virus in Rise of the Planet of the Apes assumed the same principle. By transferring alternative genetics to the brain, it effectively prevented death of nerve cells caused by Alzheimer's disease and rejuvenated the nerve cells of the brain.
The events in the movie closely resembled that of the experiment conducted. The protagonist of the movie had conducted the experiment on a particular ape which caused the ape to see a tremendous amount of improvement in intelligence. It even led to it giving birth to its son, Caesar, who eventually became the harbinger of the end of human civilization.
Despite the difference in methods applied by the two, the end goal was the same.
However, in reality, it was only feasible to modify the genes of biological embryos but not the genes of adult organisms. This was because of the trillions of genes present in the adult body. It was nigh impossible to modify all of them.
This was why retroviruses, a means of altering genes throughout the body appeared in the movie.
T Virus, G Virus, DX-1118 Virus, and other similar viruses operated on the same principle.
Back to reality. Chen Chen unplugged the charging USB drive and inserted it into the computer. He then dragged the downloaded Rise of the Planet of the Apes into the USB drive.
"Ding!"
However, there was an unexpected notification. This movie that seemed to have legitimate scientific roots was rejected by the USB drive…
Chen Chen raised his eyebrow in suspicion and tried again.
It yielded the exact same result.
Emmm…
Chen Chen thought for a moment. In an attempt to catch the USB drive off guard, he clicked the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes.mp4" title. As the cursor flashed, he hastily changed the title to "Dream of the Red Chamber.mp4" and immediately dragged it into the USB drive.
"Ding!"
Hmm, his attempt to fool the USB drive resulted in a failure.
It appeared that the movie did not conform to the core principle of the USB drive.
Chen Chen helplessly shook his head. Unsurprisingly, the first solution was a failure.
In fact, anyone with the slightest understanding of biology would know that the movie Rise of the Apes contained many pseudo-scientific elements, take the protagonist's father for example.
The protagonist's father was in the mid-stage of Alzheimer's disease. In that stage, the brain cells would begin to die in large batches. Even if the remaining neurons were preserved by the ALZ-112, it was impossible to recover the neural function damage and the lost memory.
Therefore, the events which transpired in the movie with the protagonist's father returning to normal was not possible.
Also, the source of human intelligence was not limited to the complex workings of the brain as the size of the brain played a crucial factor. The size of the human brain was three times the size of an ape's, therefore, it was simply impossible for the apes in the movie to achieve such a degree of intelligence.
Besides, even if a form of virus designed to reprogram an ape's brain was manufactured in reality, it might not work on other sub-species of apes.
Just like how the ALZ-113 was able to substantially increase an ape's intelligence but proved to be lethal on humans, it should not be able to achieve an effect of "awakening", on not just chimpanzees, but even orangutans, gorillas, bonobos, and other primates as seen in the movie.
The ALZ-113 virus had catalyzed the events in the movie. None of the events which transpired would be possible without the virus. The problem was that the virus had far exceeded the scope of what was possible in real life. Perhaps, this was the reason the movie could not be moved into the USB drive?
The catalyst of the movie?
Chen Chen pondered for a moment before downloading another movie.
Deep Blue Sea.
This was another movie that dealt with Alzheimer's, but it cured the disease by extracting the protein found in a shark's brain.
Based on the movie, dripping several drops of the protein on the brain cell was able to simulate and activate dead brain cells for six seconds. The way Chen Chen saw it, this was more fantasy than sci-fi.
The results did not prove to be surprising. Deep Blue Sea was unable to be moved into the USB drive as well.
As he watched his initial plan failing, Chen Chen decided to stop pressing the issue. He inserted the USB drive back to the charging port and found a contact on his phone.
Chen Chen thought for a bit before making the call.
"Mr. Edwards?
"I'm Chen Chen.
"I have a certain commission that you might be interested in, it's about a movie shoot.
"Yes, I'll supply the plot. I'll need a well-known screenwriter, a well-known director, and a group of well-known movie stars to play the movie I envisioned and put it on major screens. I want at least 100 million in the box office.
"The soonest possible, ideally there should be just three months between writing the script and premiering it.
"I will be funding the movie myself. 1000 audience shares, it can't possibly get any higher than that.
"Pleasure working with you…"
Chen Chen hung up after that.
The one Chen Chen had contacted was a member of the Edwards family in the North American continent.
It was Edwards Financial Group, financial titans of Wall Street. Its corporations included but were not limited to electronics, optics, space, missiles, and various electronics industries. The crucial factor was its involvement in the entertainment industry.
The Edwards family held shares in more than 200 Hollywood studios, which was nearly one-fifth of Hollywood.
The one Chen Chen had contacted was one of the three helm members of the Edwards family. He was also the member who was a part of a previous meeting and none other than Robert Edwards himself.
Chapter 120: Found an Approach |
After laying the groundwork for the film, Chen Chen went to the team in charge of the "Alzheimer's Disease Reversal Treatment" to receive the latest research report and also to get several mice.
The "Alzheimer's Disease Reversal Treatment" project was a real thing. It was led by Evans, another neurology professor invited by Chen Chen. He had participated in countless clinical trials of Alzheimer's disease in the past. This was a subject he was all too familiar with.
However, Chen Chen did not plan to work in collaboration with Evans since Chen Chen needed the NZT-48 for the experiment.
Unless he had reached the absolute extent of his capabilities, Chen Chen was not going to let any outsider find out about NZT-48.
On that account, Chen Chen could only conduct the experiments by himself.
As for the mice he needed from the research team, they were a batch of genetically modified mi
ce carrying a mutant form of human tau. These mice began to develop tau tangles in the brain at 6 months old and began showing signs of nervous system damage at 9 months old.
These were the genetically modified mice that humans had created as an Alzheimer's disease symptom model.
Chen Chen reopened a laboratory on the fifth floor. After bringing in the relevant information, he began to look through the research results of Professor Evans throughout this period.
The foreign academic circles had always upheld the tradition of the naming convention based on the person who had made the discovery. More than a hundred years ago, a man named Alzheimer was the one who dissected the brain of a deceased man who suffered from dementia and discovered the shocking phenomenon.
Not only did the brain of the deceased had gone through severe atrophy, even the cerebral cortex which governed memory, thought, and speech functionalities was destroyed. What took its place was necrotic brain cells and strange, abnormal brain deposits...
From that fateful day onward, humanity began mounting its effort against Alzheimer's, a disease persisting across the century.
Due to the concealed nature of Alzheimer's disease, humans never really took the disease seriously. It was not until recent decades when the average life expectancy went up which led to more and more people suffering from Alzheimer's which caused the academic world to begin addressing the issue.
As humanity began to devote its efforts to further inspecting the disease, they began to realize that Alzheimer's was far more threatening than they initially thought…
According to the findings of the Earth Federation Laboratory Research and Development Association, top pharmaceutical groups the likes of Bayer, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, and Pfizer had invested more than US$600 billion from 1988 to 2017. A total of 146 Alzheimer's drugs failed.
Including 2018 and 2019, top scientists all over the world had failed to come up with a solution against Alzheimer's more than 154 times over the last two decades.
One of the most shocking events was in January 2018 when the pharmaceutical company Pfizer issued a statement: Due to the technical challenges, the research and development of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's drugs will be suspended...