Li Dong clicked on the Level 1 video.
The video didn’t start from the beginning, instead resuming from where it had been paused.
Li Dong held his breath.
Second-generation single-atom iron nanozyme.
A sustained-release ROS scavenging platform.
On the screen, the Fe-N? single-atom site rotated slowly.
But this time, the site was no longer surrounded by the exposed nitrogen coordination framework of the first-generation enzyme.
A long tail was attached to the outside.
A PEG-lipid conjugate segment.
At the end of the PEG tail hung a myocardial targeting peptide.
CTP.
Just as a hint of surprise crossed Li Dong’s face, the scene before him began to break down.
Capillary → Interstitium → Myocardial cell.
A three-stage delivery.
The PEG tail delivered the enzyme into the capillaries. The myocardial targeting peptide then completed the first stage of homing, enabling transmembrane delivery into the interstitium. Finally, a specially designed pH-responsive trigger pushed it further, into the myocardial cells.
The half-life of a single dose was extended from a few hours, like the first-generation enzyme, to the order of weeks.
The Fe-N? site didn’t just have SOD-like superoxide dismutase activity.
CAT-like catalase activity was simultaneously unlocked on the very same site.
O??, H?O?, and ·OH—three lethal ROS species—were suppressed and cleared all at once by a single atom.
Li Dong stared at the screen, not even blinking.
But that wasn’t all.
The scene shifted again.
It cut to the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway.
The core pathway of myocardial fibrosis.
Once activated, fibroblasts continuously pushed the scar tissue to expand at its edges.
Healthy myocardium at the scar’s edge was eaten away bit by bit. The functional area of the left ventricular wall atrophied section by section. The left ventricular ejection fraction, LVEF, slid down a monotonically decreasing curve.
That was the progression of Professor Zhang Lufang’s disease.
It was also the one place Wu Kai and the others could never reach with their first-generation enzyme.
But the second-generation enzyme in the video, relying on a small ligand attached to the end of the PEG tail, suppressed this pathway at the molecular level.
It wasn’t just a simple "free radical scavenger."
It simultaneously carried an anti-fibrotic payload, actively blocking further expansion of the scar tissue.
Adverse left ventricular remodeling essentially stopped its decline within an eighteen-month window.
Li Dong swallowed. He knew this meant Professor Zhang Lufang wouldn’t just last another year or two, but could survive for five or six, maybe even seven or eight years.
The video continued to play.
The synthesis pathway.
Iron source precursor, coordination environment, vacancy density.
The two-step method for the PEG-lipid conjugation process.
The solid-phase synthesis of the myocardial targeting peptide.
The reaction temperature, residence time, and purification standards for each step were all clearly displayed, line by line, on the screen.
Li Dong watched, motionless.
The last frame slowly faded to black. The video was over.
Li Dong remained seated.
He felt hot from head to toe.
It was as if the contents of the video had been imprinted, bit by bit, onto his brain.
Iron source precursor, coordination, PEG conjugation, myocardial targeting peptide, TGF-β blocking payload... Each step followed the last, with no breaks in the chain.
The research path from the first-generation to the second-generation enzyme was now incredibly clear in his mind.
"...Is this really possible?"
No one could answer that question.
In the entire history of human medicine to date, no single drug had ever been able to simultaneously clear three types of reactive oxygen species, inhibit the fibrosis pathway, perform a three-stage delivery across capillaries, interstitium, and myocardial cells, and precisely remain in the border zone of myocardial scars for weeks.
What were the current clinical options for late-stage ischemic cardiomyopathy?
ACEIs (Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors), ARBs (Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers), beta-blockers, SGLT2 (Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2) inhibitors, and implantable CRT-Ds.
Every single one only delayed the progression of adverse ventricular remodeling. The prognosis curve for each still trended slowly downward.
The key breakthrough that could make that downward slope "stop declining" remained an unsolved problem in the medical world.
And the second-generation enzyme stood right at that turning point.
If it could truly make the leap from paper to the patient’s bedside.
Then the verdict that "the hospital said she only has a few years left" for people like Zhang Lufang would likely be overturned.
Did something like this really exist in the world?
Li Dong let out a long breath.
He didn’t know the answer for now either.
The only thing he knew was what kind of equipment, what kind of Coordination Chemistry, and what kind of clinical translation process would be required to bring the methods in the video to life.
He had to try.
Just as Li Dong closed the video app, a new prompt popped up in the center of the screen.
[Level 2 Unlock Condition Preview.]
[Please proceed to Level 2 to confirm.]
Li Dong casually clicked it.
The cover for Level 2, which had been gray and dusty, brightened a little.
The video itself couldn’t be opened yet, but a title floated in the center.
[Programmable Myocardial-Targeting Single-Atom Nanozyme Platform]
Below it were two lines of text.
[Unlock Condition: Fully replicate the technological achievements of Level 1 in the real world.]
[Unlock Reward: ?]
Li Dong stared at the question mark for a long time.
’Not going to tell me anything, huh?’
But he didn’t dwell on it and closed the interface.
Level 2 could wait. First, he had to make Level 1 a reality.
「The next day, in Wu Kai’s office.」
When Li Dong pushed the door open and walked in, Wu Kai was sitting at his desk, correcting a student’s lab report.
Hearing the noise, he looked up.
"Well, well, Li Dong."
"No, that’s Professor Li."
Li Dong ignored his teasing and placed the proposal in his hands on Wu Kai’s desk.
"Teacher Wu, please take a look at this first."
Wu Kai put down his pen and took the proposal, looking curious.
He was calm as he read the first page.
He turned to the second page.
He frowned and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
He turned to the third page, the fourth...
Only after reading the entire thing did he look up at Li Dong.
"Professor Li."
This time, there was no trace of teasing in Wu Kai’s tone.
"This proposal... can you make the clinical translation path work?"
Hearing this, Li Dong felt a bit of uncertainty well up inside him.
He had fully grasped the research pathway.
But clinical translation...
Ethical reviews, IND applications, toxicology assessments...
He had no experience with any of it.
He hesitated for half a second before deciding to be upfront.
"Teacher Wu."
"I’m confident about the research pathway."
"But when it comes to clinical translation, I have no experience."
"I’ll need you to guide me on how to proceed."
After hearing this, Wu Kai actually chuckled.
"Alright."
"I like your attitude."
He flipped the proposal back to the third page and pointed to a section.
"Here, where you attach a PEG-lipid conjugate tail to the Fe-N? site and then add a CTP myocardial targeting peptide."
"Did you come up with this approach yourself?"
"Yes."
"How did you think of attaching two different ligands to the first-generation enzyme’s site at the same time?"
Li Dong couldn’t exactly tell him about the video app.
He could only try to steer the conversation in a plausible direction.
"Last time I was poring over that joint paper by you and Professor Lu, I skimmed through some literature on delivery systems."
"I realized the nitrogen coordination framework of the Fe-N? site actually has spare hybrid orbitals."
"Attaching two segments isn’t out of the question."
His words were half-truth, half-lie.
The proposal in the video did exactly that. What he was doing now was reverse-engineering that conclusion from the video into a path that looked like he’d derived it himself.
Wu Kai stared at him for several seconds.
Then, he slowly nodded.
"Hmm."
"The line of thought is brilliant."
Wu Kai glanced at him.
"Are you doing this for Sister Zhang?"
Li Dong smiled.
"Not entirely."
Not entirely.
Hearing this, Wu Kai didn’t press him further.
"Alright."
"I’ll give you my full support on this project."
"But there’s one thing I need to be upfront about."
"I can’t take on this project right now."
Wu Kai pointed to another document on his desk.
"The patent was approved, so I have to keep overseeing the clinical translation for Le Pu."
"If this second-generation enzyme project is going to get off the ground, you have to be the one to lead it."
Inwardly, Li Dong felt his confidence waver.
’I’ve never led a project like this!’
Project initiation, team building, scheduling, milestone management—he’d done similar things in mathematics, but in the context of the chemistry department, he was a complete novice.
Wu Kai saw the change in his expression and guessed his concerns.
"Don’t worry."
"You can’t carry a project like this on your own."
Wu Kai leaned back in his chair.
"I’ll introduce you to two people."

Comments

Loading...