Hearing the voice of the progress of the times, recording the journey of science and technology to strengthen the country, and showing the style of self-reliance and self-improvement, the series of programs "Innovative China Said", jointly produced by the Central Radio and Television Station and the China Association for Science and Technology, will broadcast the fourth episode on the CCTV Science and Education Channel at 20 pm on August 29, and CCTV and CCTV will be launched simultaneously.
Life and health are not only the frontier of the world's scientific and technological development, but also closely related to the quality of life of each of us. Throughout human history, it is the progress of science and technology that has made human beings more and more confident and calm in the face of diseases, the average life expectancy has been continuously extended, and the quality of life has been continuously improved. The fourth episode of "Innovation in China" invites three guests to tell stories from the three fields of human aging, organoid research, and precision surgery, facing people's life and health and exploring the frontiers of life sciences.
Liu Guanghui丨Explores the mystery of human aging
From ancient times to the present, eternal youth is the common dream of mankind. To realize this dream, we first need to answer a seemingly simple, but in fact extremely complex question: why does life age?
The mainland's population aged 60 and above has reached 280 million, and actively coping with population aging has been elevated to a national strategy. In response to aging, many scientists are exploring the mysteries of aging. Liu Guanghui, a researcher at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and a member of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, is one of them.
Why do humans age? The answer is most likely hidden in the cells. Cells carry out vital activities and rely on mitochondria for energy. When this cell's "power factory" gradually "ages", the body will begin to age.
Another very important sign of cellular senescence: the length of telomeres within the nucleus. Every time a cell divides, telomeres shorten a little. When telomeres disappear, cells cannot continue to divide and renew, and people will be riddled with diseases and reach the end of their life.
So, can we stop or delay the aging of cells?
Research by Liu's team found that the answer is likely to be hidden in genes. There are many "control switches" in genes that regulate the aging process of the human body. One of them, named KAT7.
Liu Guanghui and his team conducted an experiment: they "cut" and removed the Kat7 gene from the mice. As a result, the rats lived an average of 25 to 34 percent longer. That is to say, if the average lifespan of mice is 80 years, after removing "Kat7", the average lifespan is extended to about 100 years.
Liu Guanghui and team's research also found archaean sequences in the human genome, most of which are in a sleeping state. When cells gradually age, the ancient viruses in the genome will be "resurrected", resulting in the aging of cells and tissues.
△The popular science cover drawn by Liu Guanghui's team shows the team's scientific research achievements through traditional Chinese stories: "Nezha Troubles the Sea" is a metaphor for the story of genetically enhanced stem cells promoting vascular repair; "Monkey Fishing for the Moon" shows the research results of ovarian aging in primates; "Liaozhai Painting Skin" symbolizes the youthful factors that the team discovered to delay skin aging.
Liu Guanghui's "anti-aging" advice is simple and clear: eat less and exercise more, reduce chronic inflammation in tissues, and delay aging.
At present, scientists are still exploring the mystery of aging, moving towards the ultimate goal of "old age without aging, old without disease". If the mystery of aging can really be solved, it will provide solid scientific and technological support for solving the problem of population aging, and even have a profound impact on the fate of all mankind.
Chen Yeguang丨The dawn of organ regeneration
Many science fiction movies have such a plot in which artificial organs are cultivated in laboratories for disease treatment and organ transplantation. Can such a dream become a reality?
Chen Yeguang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his team have been committed to the research of "organoids". This "thumping" is the heart organoid that scientists have grown in the laboratory.
As the name suggests, "organoids" are much like real organs and can partially mimic the structure and function of organs. However, in terms of size and complexity, there are differences with real organs and cannot be directly transplanted into the human body.
These organoids are grown in laboratories. In addition to the heart, there are different kinds of organoids such as lungs, stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas, breast, nerves, etc.
Taking "intestinal organoids" as an example, scientists extract cells from the tissue of the intestine and grow them into final organoids, which takes about five days.
Why cultivate and research organoids?
First of all, organoids can present the process of organ development in a person in great detail. In the past, we could only understand how organs grow and develop through animals, but now, we can directly "see" the growth process of organoids, providing a theoretical basis for solving a series of life and health problems.
Organoids can also help people develop new drugs. For example, many diseases are caused by viruses invading the human body, but how it enters the body, how it attacks cells, and how it causes disease remains to be studied.
By infecting organoids with viruses, scientists can deeply study the pathogenesis of viruses and provide a basis for designing new drugs.
In the face of cancer, which people have heard of, organoids can also play a unique role.
Scientists have cultivated "tumor organoids", through which anti-cancer drug screening and experiments are carried out, greatly improving the targeting of cancer treatment and helping to achieve precision medicine.
In the future, the most important application of organoids is in the field of regenerative medicine. Scientists hope that one day, organoids can truly replace our failed and damaged organs, helping human beings live longer and healthier lives.
"Culturing organoids for organ transplantation is a very long but promising road." ——Chen Yeguang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Dong Jiahong丨"Precision surgery" creates miracles of life
Making incurable diseases curable has always been the deepest expectation of the masses. The liver is the largest digestive organ in the human body, and liver disease is a common and high incidence. As of 2020, the number of liver cancer patients diagnosed worldwide has reached 900,000, and the number of liver cancer patients in China is nearly 400,000.
Dong Jiahong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, undertook a "meticulous" liver surgery in 2016, creating a miracle of life with the concept of "precision medicine".
This is a 14-hour exterior resection of echinococcosis. The operation first cuts and transfers the liver to the outside of the body, carefully "sculpts and repairs" the diseased liver, completely removes the hydatid lesion, and accurately processes and seals thousands of tiny blood vessels on the liver section, and finally implants the repaired liver back into the body.
The whole live broadcast of the operation allowed the world to see China's world-leading surgical technology, and also saw the power of the concept of "precision surgery", that is, to achieve safe, efficient and minimally invasive surgical treatment at the same time.
Protecting life is inseparable from the innovation and breakthrough of cutting-edge medical technology. In recent years, the mainland has built 50 national clinical medical centers and 12 national medical centers, and 75 state key laboratories in the field of biomedicine.
The development of medical science and technology provides more possibilities for extending human life and improving the quality of life. Facing people's lives and health and bringing more hope to patients, Chinese doctors are chasing the light.
(CCTV News Client)