Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1284 Couple's Looks (4k)

"Beijing is really different. There are so many more cars and bicycles here than in our city," a comrade remarked as he walked out of the train station and looked at the bustling traffic.

"But it's all barren here, not as open and clear as our grasslands." Another person said, regardless of whether their hometown is good or bad, they were bursting with pride.

"Yeah, that's true. Come on, come on, the bus stop is over there. Which bus do we take to get to the Health Commission?"

"I don't know either. Let's buy a map first, and go to the station to check and ask around."

Before the widespread use of mobile phone navigation in the 21st century, directions were basically just spoken, and people relied entirely on asking for directions.

In those days, there was another somewhat unstable profession in the city—giving directions.

After much searching, the two finally arrived at the Health Commission and found the place they were looking for—the Endemic Disease Prevention and Control Group of the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Center.

"Wow, you arrived so quickly? Please have a seat, we thought you'd be a while longer to arrive." The members of the prevention and control team greeted them warmly.

"Fortunately, buying the ticket went smoothly. I'm here to ask for help," the person said as they took things out of their bag.

"You've been researching this disease for a while now. It's not an explosive disease, so there's no rush."

"The sooner the better. Solving the treatment plan a day earlier might save more lives. This disease isn't fatal in the short term, but it really takes a long time to heal. It's called a lazy person's disease, which doesn't sound right."

"Yes, you're right. I misunderstood. Come, let's look at your research findings and see how we can try to solve it." No one can guarantee a solution for this kind of endemic disease; we can only try.

The comrade who came from Guicheng was somewhat ashamed: "It can hardly be called research, just some statistical data and prevention methods, but there is still no progress in treatment. This disease is too strange."

"Prevention is already a remarkable achievement. The 'Concise Handbook for Primary Care Physicians' published a few years ago also focused on prevention for various parasitic and other epidemic diseases. If prevention is not done well, many parasitic diseases will become very troublesome once they develop. Doing a good job in prevention is the core," a member of the endemic disease prevention and control team remarked.

Unfortunately, while the manual provides a relatively comprehensive range of prevention and treatment methods for many parasites and some bacterial and viral infectious diseases, including even traditionally considered incurable diseases like tuberculosis, it makes almost no mention of the disease researched by these two comrades from the grasslands. It seems that research on this disease is not progressing rapidly worldwide; otherwise, the author of the book would have no reason to exclude it from the list.

"That being said, there's a saying that you can't guard against everything. There are always people who accidentally get infected. After all, pathogens can't be killed. They exist in nature in large quantities and for a long time. There must always be treatment methods."

"Alright, let's take a closer look at what kind of monster this disease really is!" With the local comrades so full of fighting spirit, the comrades in the prevention and control team, as a national unit for the prevention and control of endemic diseases, naturally couldn't be lagging behind.

At a medical university affiliated hospital in Beijing, Lou Xiao'e, Professor Qi, and her junior colleague Luo were organizing the records of a double-blind trial of a β-lactamase inhibitor-antibiotic combination preparation. With victory in sight, the three women were in high spirits and full of fighting spirit.

"Oh, Senior Sister Lou, the computer your brother-in-law made is really convenient. If this data had been collected before, we probably would have had to spend a long time compiling and analyzing it." Junior Sister Luo went from undergraduate to graduate school, which spanned the process of computers going from non-existent to rapidly emerging in ordinary research institutions. She had a strong sense of the contrast between before and after.

Lou Xiao'e's husband is the same person who developed the computers that are now widely available. This is no secret among the people who know her. They thought Lou Xiao'e was already outstanding enough, but they never expected that she had such a genius hiding in her home.

As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together, and to make matters worse, they even helped Comrade Lou Xiao'e write that significant book. It's incredible.

"Hehehe, he's just messing around. This isn't his job." Lou Xiao'e laughed heartily, repeatedly expressing her modesty, though the direction of her modesty seemed a little off.

Lou Xiao'e killed the chat.

The main problem was that Junior Sister Luo really didn't know how to continue the conversation, it was so infuriating: "Alright, alright, I know my brother-in-law is amazing, and he's lucky too, hahaha." The smooth progress of the Chain-63 was largely thanks to Senior Sister Lou's mysterious brother-in-law.

As the group chatted and worked, typing away on their keyboards, an administrative staff member from the school came to find them.

Fortunately, this isn't a lab, but an office, so it's not too troublesome.

"Comrade Lou Xiao'e, a colleague from the Health Commission has come to see you."

Lou Xiao'e was a little confused when she heard this. The National Health Commission? The compound preparation was not finished yet, and she was still learning and improving in thoracic surgery. It was not a holiday, so the National Health Commission, such a big institution, should not have anything to ask her, a small fry, right?
Actually, Lou Xiao'e is being overly modest. Given her current achievements, it's perfectly normal for the National Health Commission to come to her anytime.

Lou Xiao'e put down what she was doing, said something to Professor Qi, and then followed the administrative staff out.

"Hello, Comrade Xiao'e. I am from the Endemic Disease Prevention and Control Group of the Center for Endemic Epidemiology of the National Health Commission. These two comrades are from the grasslands and have returned to the city."

"Oh, hello, hello." Lou Xiao'e was a little dazed; it sounded like they had nothing in common at all.

Knowing that many researchers are like this these days, the comrades from the Health Commission didn't take it seriously and continued to explain: "We came here because of a local epidemic that is quite difficult to treat, and you have a lot of research on the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and epidemics, so we came here specifically to consult you."

Infectious diseases and epidemics are not entirely the same thing, so he distinguishes between the two.

Although Lou Xiao'e hasn't graduated with her master's degree yet, what the comrades from the National Health Commission said is not an exaggeration at all. Just look at the dozens of epidemic and infectious disease prevention and treatment methods in that "Concise Handbook for Primary Care Physicians," and this statement is absolutely true.

Not to mention there's a very vivid and impressive tuberculosis treatment plan right there.

This is why the staff from the Health Commission made a special trip to see Lou Xiao'e; she was worth the trip.

When it comes to her expertise, Lou Xiao'e is quite capable. Years of study and practice have given her strong confidence. She may not understand the disease her colleagues are researching, but she is confident that she can listen and offer suggestions.

"Oh, I see. Let me see the materials. It's hard to say whether it will work out, but let's take a look first." At work, Lou Xiao'e's tone and habits were becoming more and more like Gao Zhendong's, a result of both subtle influence and deliberate imitation.

Her thinking was simple: "My son Zhendong has this habit, which means it's a good habit! If you don't believe me, just look at his results!"
It's clear that the saying "couples look alike" isn't entirely unfounded. Everyone sat down, and the comrade from the grasslands took out the documents and handed them to Lou Xiao'e.

Lou Xiao'e flipped through the documents, her brows furrowed.

This thing is indeed troublesome. It won't be life-threatening for the time being, but the problem with this disease is that it's difficult to treat.

Brucellosis, or brucellosis for short, is an epidemic disease that is prevalent in pastoral areas and can be transmitted from livestock to humans.

At first, it looks like a typical infection, but in the later stages it can attack the brain, spinal cord, heart valves, etc. Although the mortality rate of brucellosis is not high as long as these infections do not occur, it is a very troublesome disease that can linger. This disease has a common name, "lazy man's disease," which shows how torturous it is.

Just as the comrades in the endemic disease imitation team said, this disease is not urgent, but it cannot be ignored.

"This disease is quite torturous, for both patients and doctors." Lou Xiao'e had never been exposed to anything related to brucellosis prevention and control before, but with her current background, she could still understand other people's research materials.

"Yes, this disease is a bit strange. It seems that the human immune system has almost no effect on it. Studies have found that there are no symptoms between infection and onset of the disease. By the time the disease develops, the infection is already quite severe, and even at this stage, the immune system is still not very effective and the infection continues unabated."

By the mid-60s, the immune system had been studied to some extent, but its mechanisms were still relatively rudimentary, and domestic researchers were even less clear about this aspect.

"What about medication?" Lou Xiao'e asked.

“It’s strange. It’s caused by Brucella, so we treated it with penicillin, but the effect was very poor. The relapse rate was as high as 40%. The comrades in the pastoral area joked that it was better to just tough it out on their own, and that’s pretty much how it is.”

Speaking of this, the comrade who returned to the city felt very ashamed, feeling that he had not done his job well at all.

The comrade from the Endemic Disease Group of the National Health Commission said, "We are considering whether it is a problem of drug resistance, which is why we came directly to you. You are currently developing a new drug for drug resistance, and we are considering whether it can be applied in this area."

Some colleagues in the National Health Commission knew what Lou Xiao'e was doing. Firstly, because the National Health Commission itself was concerned about comrades like Lou Xiao'e who had made outstanding achievements, and secondly, because other ministries were also concerned about Lou Xiao'e's situation and wanted to learn about it through the National Health Commission.

Lou Xiao'e shook her head. She didn't understand the disease, but she did understand the bacteria. As a suspected drug-resistant bacterium, she had some knowledge of it, at least her team had conducted targeted experiments.

"I can say with certainty that although we do not know the exact mechanism of Brucella's resistance, it is not because of β-lactamase. We have conducted experiments using newly researched β-lactamase inhibitors, and the bactericidal effect against Brucella is basically the same whether β-lactamase is added or not."

The reason Brucella is difficult to deal with is for other reasons, and these reasons are currently difficult to study; we need to understand them at the cellular level.

"I see. So, do you have any general ideas about this pathogen?" The comrades from the Health Commission and the returning city were not discouraged. Although they had not found the right path, they had at least rejected a wrong one, which was already a success.

Lou Xiao'e looked at the documents in her hand and suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

"You guys should try rifampin!"

"Rifampin? Is that the one you used in the manual to treat tuberculosis?" The comrades were all very familiar with this treatment plan for tuberculosis, which is considered a major achievement at present, even though they did not study tuberculosis.

Lou Xiao'e nodded: "Yes, Brucella is also a bacillus, and so is Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Moreover, both have shown similar characteristics in the past—a weakened immune system and reduced effectiveness of penicillin. I think you can give it a try."

Current research methods are extremely limited, and we have a complete lack of understanding of the pathogenesis of these diseases and the escape mechanisms of bacteria. We can only use the most traditional method—trial and error.

When there are not enough methods, sometimes you really have to rely on trial and error and a flash of inspiration based on a solid foundation.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Lou Xiao'e's suggestion may seem like she got lucky. Without sufficient skill, such luck wouldn't have come her way.

She was somewhat pleased, but she didn't realize that she had stumbled upon this by sheer intuition—although her reasoning wasn't entirely convincing, rifampin was indeed one of the keys to treating brucellosis. However, brucellosis was a rather unique disease, so it was best to have several keys.

After listening to Lou Xiao'e's analysis, the comrades were all happy. At least it was a possible path, and it even seemed to make some sense.

They're all bacteria, and they're all very stubborn. Okay, let's give it a try.

“Okay, I’ll call the comrades returning to the city when I get back to the guesthouse and ask them to give it a try.”

Lou Xiao'e picked up the documents in her hand and said to her comrades, "I'll keep this document and study it further to see if there are any other solutions."

"Okay, okay, we've made many copies of this material. You can keep this one." Photocopiers are so convenient!

That evening, Gao Zhendong faced Lou Xiao'e, who was biting her pen while looking at the materials, her brows furrowed.

"What's wrong? It seems like you've run into a problem?" Seeing that Lou Xiao'e was looking at the materials even while eating, Gao Zhendong simply washed the dishes himself so that she could have more time to focus on her work.

When he came back after washing the dishes, he saw that she was still frowning, and Gao Zhendong couldn't help but ask.

“Yes, it is indeed quite difficult. Here, take a look…” Lou Xiao’e pushed the materials off the table to Gao Zhendong. She knew that although Gao Zhendong did not study medicine, his ability to summarize and analyze in the medical field was always excellent, and he also had incredible luck.

While saying "I don't understand this, I don't understand this," Gao Zhendong took the documents and started reading them. His behavior was just like a child facing lucky money during Chinese New Year, refusing while accepting it.

(End of this chapter)