Professor Li walked into the coffee shop holding the latest issue of "The Lancet" magazine. He made an appointment with a few colleagues to chat and share recent research progress. He found a spot in a corner and sat down to wait for the others to arrive.
Less than five minutes after sitting down, Dr. Wang and Dr. Zhang also walked in. They are all old friends of Professor Li and well-known medical experts in the country. After they saw Professor Li, they simply said hello and sat across from him.
"This is the latest issue of The Lancet. Are there any new findings?" Dr. Wang asked.
"I actually saw an interesting article about CRISPR gene editing drugs for the treatment of advanced lung cancer. It's very interesting," Dr. Wang said.
"Oh? Gene editing drugs? At what stage is the relevant research going? Which company's project?" Dr. Zhang asked curiously.
"The effect is not bad, you can see for yourself." Professor Li directly handed over the Lancet magazine in his hand.
Dr. Zhang took it directly and started reading it, while Dr. Wang on the side also leaned his head and started reading it.
"A customized lung cancer drug based on CRISPR gene editing technology has shown significant anti-cancer effects in animal experiments. This drug can accurately repair or eliminate mutations in cancer cells based on the genetic characteristics of each patient's tumor Or abnormal genes, thereby achieving the purpose of killing cancer cells or preventing their proliferation and metastasis.
Animal experiments on mice and rats have been completed and applications for human clinical trials are under way.
In animal experiments, the drug was compared with conventional chemotherapy drugs. The results showed that the drug can significantly and effectively reduce the size of lung cancer cell transplant tumors and prolong the survival time of animals.
In experiments on mice, after four weeks of treatment, the average tumor volume in the drug group was 50.6 cubic millimeters, compared with 179.4 cubic millimeters in the chemotherapy group and 248.7 cubic millimeters in the control group. Compared with the chemotherapy group and the control group, the differences between the drug group and the chemotherapy group were statistically significant (P<0.01).
In experiments on rats, after eight weeks of treatment, the average tumor volume in the drug group was 68.3 cubic millimeters, compared with 302.5 cubic millimeters in the chemotherapy group and 412.6 cubic millimeters in the control group. Compared with the chemotherapy group and the control group, the differences between the drug group and the chemotherapy group were statistically significant (P<0.01).
In addition, in experiments on mice, the average survival time of the drug group was 72 days, compared with 48 days for the chemotherapy group and 38 days for the control group."
Dr. Zhang and Dr. Wang looked up one after another after reading, but they noticed the company name at the end.
"Aiying Biological Company? Why do I feel a bit like the Aiying Biological Company in China when I look at this name?" Dr. Zhang muttered subconsciously.
Dr. Wang also nodded in agreement, because during this period, during his leisure time, he could often see some news videos from self-media channels pushing him the latest research results of Aiying Biology.
So when I saw this name now, the first thing that came to my mind was the name of this domestic company.
"Well, yes. That's why I came to you this time." Professor Li nodded.
"Oh? What do you mean?" Dr. Wang looked at Professor Li after saying this.
Dr. Zhang asked with a smile. "It seems that you don't go to the Three Treasures Palace for nothing. I wonder why you, a busy man, suddenly invited guests to dinner."
"This project is done by our domestic Aiying Biotechnology, and the person in charge of the project is my college classmate." Professor Li did not hide anything, he told everything in detail, and directly handed over two relevant details. Two people.
The main reason why I chose these two friends is that they are the top doctors in related fields in the country.
Although he is not a director or anything like that, he already has the title of deputy director, and he is still in the Cancer Hospital of the Medical Academy, the top hospital in China like Xiehe, where there is no shortage of medical ethics, medical skills, and patients.
Dr. Wang and Dr. Zhang are also concentrating on studying the specific details at this moment. This drug is simply a customized drug.
“In the first step, tumor tissue samples are taken from the patient and whole-exome sequencing and HLA typing are performed to determine the patient’s TSA and its corresponding HLA-restricted peptides.
In the second step, the corresponding gRNA is designed and synthesized based on the patient's TSA and its HLA-restricted peptide, and combined with the Cas9 protein to form an RNP complex.
The third step is to collect peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from the patient and isolate CD8+ T lymphocytes.
The fourth step is to transfect the RNP complex into CD8+ T lymphocytes, and use the CRISPR-Cas9 system to insert the TSA-HLA restricted peptide coding sequence into the TCRα chain constant region gene, thereby making the CD8+ T lymphocytes express specificity. TCR, and can recognize and kill tumor cells expressing the same TSA-HLA restricted peptide.
Finally, the edited and expanded CD8+ T lymphocytes are infused back into the patient as a personalized CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing immunotherapy. "
"This kind of personalized solution is really good, but it's expensive," Dr. Wang couldn't help but joke.
When top doctors choose which drugs to participate in clinical trials, they do not do so at will or passively. Instead, they make decisions based on comprehensive considerations of multiple factors.
Generally speaking, doctors will cooperate with well-known pharmaceutical companies or institutions due to their own personal wishes, the impact of hospital indicators and policies, or personal career development.
"It is innovative, has good potential value, and has great social demand. The only problem may be that the strength of pharmaceutical companies is average." Dr. Zhang finished reading it and commented.
"The specific pricing will not be known until after it is launched. It is not clear yet. But I think it will definitely be much cheaper than foreign products. As for the strength of Aiying Biotech, if we only consider the time of establishment, the drugs already on the market such as From a perspective, Aiying Biotechnology is not even as good as small factories in some places, but small factories are not willing to spend money to invest in multiple projects at the same time and invest large amounts of research and development expenses." Professor Li explained patiently.
"Old Li, it seems that your classmates have told you a lot of inside information? Tell us so that we can understand better." Dr. Wang and Dr. Zhang both looked at Professor Li.
"Well, you told me some things, but let me declare in advance that what I say next is just a retelling."
"The boss of Aiying Biotechnology, that young man Wu Zhou, when recruiting my classmate, one of the conditions he gave was that the annual R&D cost support should not be less than 100 million. The second condition is that there is no limit. For research, the only requirement is that the research project must be breakthrough innovative product research.”
"Last weekend, my classmate and I had a chat about work. According to his answer, Aiying Biology has exceeded its promise to him, and he said without hesitation that Aiying Biology is the best scientific research institution he has ever worked in. There is no other institution."
"In addition, according to his understanding and exposure, Aiying Biotech is currently researching in many fields, covering innovative drugs and biological agents with major medical needs such as mask viruses, cancer, cardiovascular, nervous system, etc. In addition, gene therapy A lot of investment has also been made in the application of cutting-edge technologies such as RNA therapy and mRNA therapy, many of which are breakthrough innovative products. I think there will definitely be more and more related clinical projects in the future." Professor Li said with a smile, talking about the success of these cutting-edge scientific research projects. when.
Dr. Wang and Dr. Zhang also had their pupils slightly dilated, which sounded a bit unreal.
"What stage have they reached for this clinical project?" Dr. Wang finally said. The process of a clinical project can be roughly divided into the following stages: pre-project establishment, project establishment, ethics review, genetic office review, contract signing, center startup, clinical After the observation and testing are over, the project may take 3 to 6 months from project establishment to launch.
"The project has just been established. However, my classmate said that if the clinical results are good in the later stage of this project, each cooperating doctor can make the decision independently and increase the number of clinical recruitment places. After the later stage drugs are launched, they will also be given about 100 RMB per year. A quota of charity medicines"
"Hey, the money is really not bad." Dr. Zhang and Dr. Wang took a breath at the same time.
(End of chapter)
