Plague Doctor Chapter 8: Experiments With The Foreign Medicine

Chapter 8: Experints With The Foreign dicine

Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

Zhang Lin took a lifting cylinder out of the liquid nitrogen tank and extracted a cryopreservation tube from the lifting cylinder. He then carefully placed the lifting cylinder back inside, as there were still cryogenic tubes for many other cells in the lifting cylinder. After Zhang Lin sealed the lid of the liquid nitrogen tank again, he started a series of patient and ticulous operations.

He first placed the cryopreservation tube in a water bath and quickly thawed it with a hot water bath of 37°C, before going to the centrifuge and centrifugation for five minutes. Next, he sat down at the ultra-clean bench and turned the opening of the centrifuge tube to the alcohol lamp. He carefully heated and sterilised the tube. Following that, he discarded the waste liquid, added a fresh cultured dium with a pipette, and repeatedly mixed the solution.

Gu Jun had been watching beside him seriously the entire ti. Every ti he had questions, he directed them to Brother Zhang and managed to gain a lot of new knowledge.

For example, the speed control of the rotation of the centrifuge, the suction and discharge control of the pipette, etc. Even a little carelessness in these resuscitation operations would affect the cell survival and proliferation rate.

Finally, Zhang Lin poured the cell suspension into a petri dish and added an appropriate amount of the cultured solution. He then placed it into a cell culture incubator and set it at 37°C and 5% CO2.

“Wait for at least two days.” Zhang Lin took off his mask and pushed his glasses. “I recomnd that you culture it for a week so that the tumour formation rate would be guaranteed.”

“I will try the first batch after two days.” Gu Jun shrugged. There was no other option. Ti was simply not on his side. The system showed that his symptoms would worsen after 30 days. He said, “Brother, let’s go out for a al tonight? My treat.”

“Forget it.” Zhang Lin waved him off. “I still have to feed the mice at night. It’ll be my treat then.”

***

Gu Jun spent the next two days on campus. Other than getting together with friends and reminiscing about the past, he was only doing two things. First was to read up on books to prepare for his redial tests. If he did not die then have to repeat the grade, it would prove to be quite troubleso as well. The second was to go to the laboratory every day to take care of the cells and change the culture dium.

On the morning of the third day, Zhang Lin personally ca to observe. He ntioned that the cells had barely grown, and he helped with the subculture and preparation of cell suspensions.

On the other hand, Gu Jun went to the Experintal Animal Centre of the school. It was actually a large base for breeding and was located a few hundred ters outside the school park.

He bought five naked mice. Each costing over one hundred yuan, which was rather expensive. Fortunately, he still had 20,000 yuan in deposits, but it would not last him for long.

When money is needed, one could only lant not having enough. Gu Jun really regretted donating the money so early. After all, he was still alive, yet his money was gone.

Ahem. Each of these naked mice was about the sa size as two or three fingers and had no hair. Just as its na suggested. They were packed inside a sterile box. Once they co into contact with the external bacteria environnt, they could quickly beco infected and die of disease. Therefore, the usual breeding and experint processes need to be perford in an isolated environnt.

Eastern University’s isolation environnt laboratories were located in the Experintal Animal Research Centre. This five-story yellow brick building was next to the laboratory building.

Gu Jun and Zhang Lin t in the lobby on the first floor of the research centre and booked an hour-long session for the use of a small naked mouse room. This was a small room of only 21 square ters. It was divided into a front room and a rear room. The front room had a test bench and instrunts. Whereas, the rear room is a breeding room.

Before entering, all their belongings and their bodies had to be strictly sterilised by ultraviolet sterilisation. The two set foot in the naked mouse room with a full-body gear of protective suit, masks, gloves, foot covers, and other protective equipnt.

Soon after in the anterior laboratory bench, Gu Jun marked the five naked mice by punching holes in their ears and proceeded to inject them with tumour cells subcutaneously on the right side of the buttocks.

Zhang Lin was responsible for assisting him. These cells could infiltrate the human body and theoretically form tumours inside. Seeing that Tycoon Jun was being so enthusiastic about the naked mice, he was now certain that this little brother was not plotting murder.

After all five naked mice were injected, Gu Jun placed them inside a feeding cage. What cos after was to observe if they could form tumours.

“Brother, thank you very much,” Gu Jun thanked Brother Zhang. After all, it would not have been possible for the experint to run so smoothly without his help.

“The old Chinese dicine doctor that you ntioned.” Zhang Lin still had a wary expression on his face. “Are you sure he isn’t a conman?”

***

In the following week, Gu Jun continued his previous daily routine, except that he now went to the naked mouse room daily to check on the progress of the caged naked mice. Their rearing was taken care of by the managent of the naked mouse room.

He only completed three NORMAL missions this week as he was unable to fulfil the requirents of “patients requiring treatnt”. Although the hospital was nearby, he was not a certified doctor yet. The tasks he completed were all related to dical procedures. He had already gotten his hands on five boxes of pills, and the Hands of Dexterity had progressed but still was in the first tier (3000/5000 Proficiency).

On the seventh day, Gu Jun once again went into the naked mouse room with aseptic equipnt and examined the naked mice individually.

None of the mice had died. A soybean-like round tumour had grown under the skin on the right side of No 1’s buttocks. asurents had shown that the diater was 0.5 cm. No 3 and No 4 also had visible protrusions, with diaters of 0.3 cm and 0.5 cm respectively, while No 2 and No 5 still showed no signs of tumour formation.

At this point, he can confirm that out of the five naked mice, three had ford tumours.

Gu Jun divided two tumour-forming naked mice as Group A and one tumour-forming naked mouse as Group B. Whereas the two naked mice, which had no tumours forming, was split into Group C and Group D respectively. He then went to the Animal Centre to buy 10 additional healthy naked mice and divided them into two. The 5 of them comprised Group E, and the other 5 split into Group F. Groups A, C, and E would receive the sa dosage of the “foreign dicine” (the na he ca up with) daily. At the sa ti, Groups B, D, and F would not be given any dications and were the control group.

All in all, there were three sets: tumour-forming naked mice, non-tumour-forming naked mice, and healthy naked mice. Each set of groups had a group prescribed with the “foreign dicine”, and one group without dication.

At this point, six cages had been prepared on the experint table, and the naked mice squeaked noisily, creating a din.

Gu Jun tinkered with 25 isotonic capsules. Since the system description ntioned that one box could extend one’s lifespan by five days, that should an that one capsule is equivalent to one day of lifespan since there are five capsules inside a box. This was the dosage for an average human adult, and these naked mice weighed below 20g on average. If they had to be fed one capsule a day as well, then he would have to make so sacrifices.

He poured out all the dicinal powder in a single capsule and weighed the dose. He then converted the weight of the naked mouse to his own weight to figure out the recomnded dosage, formulated a solution, and diluted it in proportion.

Soon, Gu Jun held a syringe filled with the solution in one hand, grasped a fixed healthy naked mouse in the other, and started the first experint of intragastric administration.

“Squeak squeak squeak.” The naked mouse struggled a little, but the poor thing was still injected by his needle, and thus left its contribution to dicinal studies.

At this mont, Gu Jun’s heartbeat started beating a little faster, and his eyes stared unblinking at the naked mouse.

He had not tested the toxicity of the “foreign dicine” until this mont. If it dies suddenly, then perhaps this experint would lose all its aning. Now he stared at the clock. 5 minutes, then 10 minutes...

Almost half an hour passed, and the naked mouse still had not shown any abnormalities.

It seems that there is no apparent toxicity in the “foreign dicines”. Gu Junsong breathed out a sigh of relief. “I still need to observe for slow-acting toxins, though.”

He then continued to administer the solution to the next naked mouse. After taking ten minutes to complete the administration to the other seven naked mice in the other three groups that required dication, he continued observing for an additional hour. None of them displayed any abnormal response. They were still able to cry out loudly and ingest food and water.

“Dear mice friends, please live,” Gu Jun murmured, pressing down on his aching head. His condition was clearly worsening. “Please make it. I’m begging you.”

***

On the second and third day, Gu Jun continued to co to the naked mouse room daily.

The tumours in the naked mice without dication in Group B had swelled from 0.3 cm to 0.6 cm, while their body weight and ntal state had no visible change. However, the size of their tumours remained the sa for Group A mice with administration two days later. It was still maintaining 0.5 cm.

Gu Jun knew the implications of these results: the “foreign dicine” really worked! These capsules can significantly inhibit tumour growth.

On the other hand, the other naked mice which were administered the dication proceeded as usual. This also ant that the “foreign dicine” seems to have no adverse effects and does not damage the body’s functions.

“Maybe, I can really survive this ti?” Gu Jun thought to himself. Although uneasiness still haunted his heart, a new hope lit at the sa ti.

The fourth day, the fifth day... in the blink of an eye, a week had passed.

The tumour in the naked mice of Group B had grown to a size of 1.5cm. The colossal tumour contrasted sharply with its thin body. It began to lose weight and seed to have lost its spirit. However, the two naked mice in Group A continued to be in a stable condition, and all the administered naked mice were surviving well. There was practically no difference from the mice set as the control group.

He had to say that the results obtained from this experint were simply too satisfying.

The effects of the drug written in foreign language were simply better than the top small-molecule tumour-targeting dicines currently on the market.

However, Gu Jun also knows that the adverse reactions of the “foreign dicine” cannot be completely ruled out yet. The results of the experint only proved that there were no short-term side effects. Plus, this was an experint conducted on animals. There were specific essential differences from human clinical trials.

However, the results of this experint were already well worth it for him to risk it.

After writing his will in the afternoon of that very day, Gu Jun arrived at the waiting room of the ergency departnt at the affiliated hospital of Eastern University. Surprisingly, he found a seat on a waiting bench. The surroundings were crowded with patients and their family mbers, most of which were crying children and their comforting parents. Nurses walked in a hurry while pushing rescue beds.

Amongst the noisy bustle, the ergency departnt broadcast continued to call out patient numbers, “No 182, Chen Ziyang. No 183, Wang Yuxuan. No 184, Huang Zixuan...”

Heaving a sigh, Gu Jun resolutely threw a capsule of “foreign dicine” into his mouth, and took a sip of mineral water to swallow it.

“Bring it.” He calmly looked at the ergency sign on the wall over at a nearby wall. “If there’s any toxic reaction, bring it all at once!”