Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 592 - 336 The Perfect Solution is Always a Bit Expensive

Chapter 592: Chapter 336 The Perfect Solution is Always a Bit Expensive

Xiang Shan sank back into his chair, only to feel his legs go weak as if he had just walked around the edge of an abyss.

Yawgmoth and Niyaguti had not noticed the flurry of his thoughts in that brief moment.

The first thing he thought of was this.

If the signaling factors mentioned in Yawgmoth’s Plan C can reverse the life cycle of the immune system, then...

Could they also reverse the overall life cycle of humans? Achieve a direct return to youth?

This thought, like a chain reaction, exploded in his mind, triggering all sorts of questions.

If the aging of Homo sapiens could be reversed, that would certainly be a good thing. If this technology were developed at the present stage, it could save more people and enable more individuals to meet the "Benchmark Man" standard.

But it would also create new problems. The old people in control of everything would now have an even longer lifespan. And according to the agreement reached by the major powers on the UN Security Council, their positions would be rock solid until 2055—a trend that has already taken shape. They could easily take hold of everything, and then, when the UN Security Council’s resolution expires, claim their share as Benchmark Men.

After the emergence of the new technology, will it increase social unrest? Or will it solidify the old people’s stranglehold on power?

The potential implications of this discovery were simply too vast. Xiang Shan even felt a pointer inside his heart sliding between "research this technology" and "abandon this technology."

But either side involved the fate of the entire world.

Fortunately, Yawgmoth stated that such technology couldn’t achieve a return to youth.

"... How could it possibly restore youth?" Yawgmoth continued his endless explanations: "Aging doesn’t happen just on the cellular level. On a more microscopic level, the accumulation of DNA damage, and changes in telomere length, as well as on a more macroscopic level, the regressive alterations in bodily functions and structural mechanics, and functional decline—these aren’t issues that such techniques could easily mitigate."

Xiang Shan waved his hand. That was good. No one needed to make that choice.

Xiang Shan pressed his temples: "Thinking about it this way... it seems like there are no problems?"

"No, actually, there is one." Niyaguti picked up her tablet and quickly confirmed something: "The problem lies in the research cost. You must have noticed Yawgmoth’s ’past experiences,’ right...?"

Xiang Shan slapped his forehead: "The ’Small Rejuvenation Pill’ project, right? But isn’t the Small Rejuvenation Pill project... progressing steadily? Doctor Tao is almost back to normal."

"Yes, it’s progressing steadily, but that’s just it."

The project aimed to develop a technology to repair nerve damage. In the process of cyberization of humankind, numerous alterations closely associated with the "nervous system" could occur. Each change had the potential to cause irreversible nerve damage. And that project was initiated to address this concern.

But progress was slow.

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No, it’s not that it’s really slow. In academia, it’s not uncommon for a major project to take ten years. However, Superman Enterprise’s R&D institution gathers the best scientists from all over the world, and its daily routine is to "achieve revolutionary outcomes".

This project has existed since the entrepreneurial phase of Superman Enterprise, and after Doctor Tao Enhai joined in 2039, even more resources were allocated. However, to this day, progress can only be described as "steady".

"In fact, all the compounds currently used in the ’Small Rejuvenation Pill’ project have only been successful in the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system, especially the brain, is proving to be very problematic," Niyaguti shook her head, "and the difficulty of this project is only higher than that of the ’Small Rejuvenation Pill’ project."

"Ah?" Xiang Shan was shocked. "Is that so? Isn’t the nervous system more complex than the immune system?"

"The complexity of the nervous system lies in its more macroscopic neural network structure—as you are better aware than we are. However, at the cellular level it’s quite pure, with only two major types: glial cells and neurons," Niyaguti shook her head. "But the immune system... it includes immune organs such as the bone marrow, thymus, lymph nodes, spleen, tonsils, etc. The immune cells spread throughout the body include lymphocytes, mononuclear phagocytes, neutrophils, basophils, eosinophils, mast cells, NK cells... It’s actually very diverse at the cellular level. The immune system can be described as a ’flowing brain’ that is distributed throughout the body and communicates information purely through chemical signals."

"Moreover, tampering with the cell lifecycle will inevitably affect a number of proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes—this too is a topic that the Small Rejuvenation Pill project has been tackling to this day."

"Proto-oncogenes" are a class of genes on the evolutionary scale, extremely ancient and conserved, possibly tracing back to single-cell organisms’ "base code," performing crucial tasks such as promoting cell growth and activating the cell cycle.

The out-of-control mutation of proto-oncogenes is the "driving force" of cancer, yet, under normal circumstances, they are key to controlling cell growth and development. Without the initiation and expression of proto-oncogenes, cells will not grow, will not divide.

And reversing the cell lifecycle, will inevitably touch upon some proto-oncogenes.

——As for cancer transformation...

"Shit, so it was waiting for me here," Xiang Shan covered his head. "After maturing, neurons almost never divide, and tumors of the nervous system are mostly derived from various glial cells. But the immune system itself can Divide quite well..."

The robust proliferation of the immune system proves that its proto-oncogenes are quite active. Once a mutation occurs in proto-oncogenes, it will enter a trend of rapid cancerous development.

It’s not uncommon for immune cells themselves to undergo cancerous changes. Moreover, once immune cells do become cancerous... whether it’s leukemia, which is the cancerous transformation of white blood cells, or lymphoma, which results from the transformation of T cells, there’s basically no chance of being benign.

Xiang Shan slapped his forehead, "Ah... I see, I see. Both Plan A and Plan B are very mature technologies, and there’s nothing particularly innovative about Plan D. But this Plan C..."

"If Yog plans to use ’past experience,’ then another issue raised by the ’Small Rejuvenation Pill’ project is dedifferentiation followed by redifferentiation," said Niyaguti. "There are several drugs in the Small Rejuvenation Pill project that were discarded. At high concentrations, these drugs could even directly reverse neurons back into neural stem cells. And if these neural stem cells were to differentiate again, most would directly turn into glial cells rather than neurons."

"Invoking a ’specific point in time’ is more difficult than simply ’reversing the lifecycle.’ The difference between them is like the difference between ’hitting the replay button’ and ’dragging the slider to find the specific segment you want.’"

"Within the Small Rejuvenation Pill project, this issue is already so challenging. Now you want to apply it to the immune system, which is even more complex at the cellular level..." Niyaguti shook her head.

But Yawgmoth was confident: "I can solve this problem."

Xiang Shan now understood why Yawgmoth was in such a good mood today.

"How much do you plan to spend?"

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