Chapter 236: Biological Nanomachines

Two weeks later, at the Magic Research Institute, Andrew Tooke had already prepared the transgenic adenovirus.

"We have conducted preliminary experimental verification. The elderly mice injected with the transgenic adenovirus have improved in all functional levels compared to their peers, and the aging level has decreased by about 9%."

"9%? So low?"

"Due to immune action, the loss ratio of non-replicating viruses is relatively large, but excessive dosing will cause severe inflammatory reactions, and repeated dosing faces immune problems as well. The effect has never been very ideal."

There was an anti-aging effect of about 30% in in vitro experiments, but it dropped to 9% in animal experiments. After truly entering the human body, whether this thing can still play a role is a question.

However, this is the norm in the pharmaceutical industry. The clinical environment and in vitro experiments are completely different concepts. In vitro, any drug is a miracle drug, but the complexity of the in vivo environment is many orders of magnitude higher, and the effect of drugs is often discounted.

"Has the replicating virus been prepared?" Murphy asked again.

Transgenic viruses are also viruses. Letting them replicate in the body might cause unpredictable consequences. Therefore, transgenic therapy uses viruses with replication defects, making them one-time tools with relatively high safety and basically no major side effects.

But at this moment, it seems that non-replicating viruses are obviously difficult to exert effective effects. Murphy intends to directly use replicating viruses for the *Seed of Soul* experiment.

"It has been prepared."

Soon, Murphy came to the laboratory.

Because he needed to use the *Seed of Soul*, the experimental subjects couldn't be mice.

This time they found 40 gnomes, all of which had been injected with *Essence of Dittany* promoter for a long time, aging extremely fast, and the degree of aging was basically the same.

40 gnomes were divided into four groups. Among them, three groups, 12 gnomes each, were injected with different doses of viruses. They were the experimental groups. The other 4 gnomes were not injected with viruses and served as the non-viral control group.

Among the three experimental groups, each was divided into four secondary groups: A, B, C, and D. Murphy would release *Seed of Soul* spells with different contents to three gnomes in the A, B, and C secondary groups, while the D group would not be released with the *Seed of Soul* and served as the non-spell control group.

Murphy released the same *Seed of Soul* to the nine gnomes in group A: "After treating aging, disintegrate on your own."

Then the *Seed of Soul* used for group B was: "Maintain the host's healthy state."

For group C, Murphy had a sudden thought and didn't set the content of the *Seed of Soul*, but used a *Seed of Soul* with a communication interface similar to that of the werewolf mercenaries.

For the next two days, Murphy and others had been observing the state of each gnome.

The gnomes in the high-dose experimental group all showed inflammatory reactions, but the group A performance was relatively stable, the group B effect varied greatly, and the group C and D gnomes were close to a dying state, and even one in each had already died.

The gnomes in the low-dose experimental group had milder symptoms, but no obvious reduction in aging level was observed.

The results of the medium-dose group were not bad. The inflammatory reaction of group A gnomes was slightly higher than that of the low-dose group, but they were all within a controllable range, and a significant reduction in aging level was observed. The effect of group B was similar to the low-dose group, while the inflammatory reaction of group C and D was higher, and the reduction in aging level was more slight.

Judging from the situation of group A, the *Seed of Soul* seems to indeed benefit the therapeutic effect of transgenic viruses.

However, what the therapeutic effect is, and whether there are more side effects, etc., all require more observation to determine.

Murphy guessed that the situation of group B should be related to his order being too vague.

In order to further verify, Murphy turned his attention to the group C gnomes.

He used a *Seed of Soul* without internal commands for this group, but it could be overwritten by commands through the connection with the caster. Theoretically, the flexibility is extremely high, but he hadn't tried this usage yet, and didn't know if it was feasible.

Murphy immediately tried to issue an order to a gnome: "Treat the host's aging."

This order can be compared with group A to test whether the therapeutic effect of the virus is affected by post-hoc orders, but it might take some time to see the results.

Then Murphy issued another order to another group C gnome: "Escape from the cage, otherwise die."

At first, the gnome didn't have much reaction, but soon, it began to become restless, frequently shaking the cage, and a few minutes later, the gnome was completely crazy, desperately trying to drill out of the cage, and even used human language to beg.

Murphy looked at this scene, even if he had expected it, he still felt a little shocked.

Undoubtedly, the virus controlled the gnome's behavior. The virus couldn't possibly understand his order, but perhaps through the gnome's brain, they understood and executed this order through the gnome.

A few minutes later, the gnome visibly decayed. Blood flowed from its mouth and nose, and a few minutes later, the gnome died.

Murphy waited for a while, extracted some tissue samples from the gnome, and observed its ability to infect animal cells in a culture reagent with a very small amount of *Essence of Dittany* promoter, finally confirming that the viruses in the gnome's body had also been inactivated.

Under the action of the *Seed of Soul*, those viruses not only killed the gnome as the host but also killed themselves!

Murphy breathed a sigh of relief. Viruses that are obedient enough to commit suicide are good viruses.

Since it can be guaranteed that the virus can die autonomously, then as long as its side effects are not at a fatal level, they can be taken for attempts.

The safety of using it for treatment is greatly increased.

The heart that had been hanging since the battle with the shaman finally relaxed a little. Although with a maximum in vitro anti-aging rate of 30%, this thing would likely only be able to prolong his life temporarily, but at least he didn't have to worry about sudden death.

His mood relaxed a lot, and then he became curious about the mechanism of the *Seed of Soul* controlling the virus. How did it understand the command "leave the cage"?

If it can understand this instruction, can it understand more complex instructions?

"Write a number."

The gnome had no reaction.

Murphy thought for a while. "Write a 2."

After a long while, the gnome twitched, as if it had some kind of crazy disease. Its hand shook like a sieve, but it still drew a crooked number 2 on the ground.

Murphy understood. "It didn't understand the instruction, but my instruction was translated into a state it could execute. If my instruction is too vague, and it doesn't possess the necessary ability to complete the instruction itself, the instruction will likely fail."

In that case, the completion method of the instruction "treat the host's aging" is actually the transgenic virus desperately replicating and releasing metabolites to complete the repair of the host's DNA.

If it weren't for the vampire gene, the adenovirus itself wouldn't have anti-aging ability, so this instruction wouldn't take effect.

The instruction "write a 2" for the virus is to stimulate the gnome's nervous system, making it complete an action of drawing a specific shape on the ground.

Murphy suddenly realized. Funes Bachmann and Omid Abbott once guessed that the *Seed of Soul* could make viruses or bacteria possess wisdom through the host's brain, which might be a misunderstanding.

These viruses might just be a whole, becoming the "hardware" and tools controlled by the *Seed of Soul*.

They might possess some behavioral patterns that look like they possess wisdom, but behind this behavioral pattern, it's actually just the *Seed of Soul* releasing signals they can read.

If the facts are indeed so, aren't these viruses equivalent to biological nanomachines?

Then is there any way to let them locate cancer cells in the body and kill them accurately?

If it can be done, then it can replace Car-T therapy and suppress his cancer level to a degree that doesn't affect his life.

In this way, couldn't his two major symptoms: aging and cancer, both be alleviated?

At least, he doesn't have to worry about dying before getting the *Philosopher's Stone*.

Then the problem arises again, how to let the virus identify and locate cancer cells?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 237 =====