hopes that young scientific and technological workers will inherit, develop and utilize traditional Chinese medicine, the precious wealth left to us by our ancestors, and write a new chapter in the process of building a healthy China.
——Tu Youyou
December 30, 2020, is Tu Youyou’s 90th birthday. She received a special birthday gift: Researcher Tu Youyou’s studio was unveiled at the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. She has only dedicated her life to one thing - the research and development of artemisinin and its derivatives, and she is still focused on it today...
"I studied medicine, not only can I stay away from pain, but I can also save more people"
" "Yoyou deer sounds, eats the wild grass." Tu Youyou's name destined her to be associated with Qinghao for a lifetime.
Tu Youyou was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province in December 1930. "The female Book of Songs , the male Chu Ci" is an ancient Chinese naming habit. Tu Youyou's father picked up the word "Yoyou" from the " Book of Songs·Xiaoya ". The father said again, " Artemisia green, repay the spring light." He never expected that this "little grass" would change her destiny.
Tu Youyou’s academic journey was interrupted by an illness. When she was 16 years old, she unfortunately contracted tuberculosis and recovered after more than two years of treatment. This experience made her interested in medicine. "I studied medicine. Not only can I stay away from illness, but I can also save more people. Why not?" From then on, Tu Youyou decided to pursue medicine...
In 1951, Tu Youyou was admitted to the Department of Pharmacy, Peking University School of Medicine. (now School of Pharmacy, Peking University School of Medicine), chose the unpopular major - pharmacognosy . Many years later, Tu Youyou said that this was her wisest choice.
After graduating from university in 1955, Tu Youyou was assigned to the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the former Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the Ministry of Health (now the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences), where she has been working ever since. Four years after joining the workforce, Tu Youyou became a student of the "Third Phase of the Western Medicine Resignation Study Class of Traditional Chinese Medicine" organized by the former Ministry of Health, where she systematically studied traditional Chinese medicine knowledge and was inspired to discover artemisinin.
In addition to training, she often went to medicinal companies to learn traditional Chinese medicine identification and processing techniques from veteran pharmacists. She carefully studied and followed the authenticity of medicinal materials, quality identification, processing methods, etc. These daily accumulations laid a solid foundation for her future anti-malarial projects.
"I am the team leader, and I have the responsibility to be the first to test the drug."
In July 1972, Beijing Dongzhimen Hospital admitted a group of special "patients." Scientific researchers including Tu Youyou had to be "little patients." "White rats" to test the medicine. Tu Youyou said without hesitation: "I am the team leader, and I have the responsibility to be the first to test the medicine!" This story begins with the "523" project.
In January 1969, 39-year-old Tu Youyou suddenly received an urgent task: as the leader of the research team, she worked with more than 500 scientific researchers from 60 scientific research units across the country to develop new antimalarial drugs. The project began in May 1967. The meeting date was named the 23rd, so it was named the "523" project.
In the initial stage, the institute arranged for Tu Youyou to work alone. In just 3 months, she collected and sorted out more than 2,000 prescriptions, and based on this, she compiled a "Single Secret Malaria Prescription Collection" containing 640 kinds of drugs, and sent it to the "523" office. After two years, her team gradually grew and after hundreds of failures, Tu Youyou set her sights on the traditional Chinese medicine Qinghao: they found that the inhibitory rate of Qinghao against malaria in mice had reached 68%, but the effect was unstable...
Speaking of the hardships of research, Tu Youyou’s wife Li Tingzhao still remembers: In order to find the reason for the unstable effect, Tu Youyou once again reviewed ancient medical books. Eastern Jin Ge Hong's " Elbow Reserve Emergency Recipe " caught her attention with a few sentences: "One handful of Artemisia annua, soaked in two liters of water, wring the juice and drink it all."
"One is Artemisia annua There is a breed problem.There are many varieties of traditional Chinese medicine. Which one of the Artemisia genus is Artemisia annua? Secondly, as for the medicinal part of Artemisia annua, which part of the juice mentioned in "Emergency Prescriptions" is the part? Third, what impact does the harvesting season of Artemisia annua have on the efficacy of the medicine? Fourth, what is the most effective extraction method? Tu Youyou said.
Tu Youyou repeatedly considered these issues and finally chose ether with a low boiling point for extraction. After many failures, finally on October 4, 1971, the ether neutral extraction sample No. 191 was extracted. The suppression rates of mouse malaria and monkey malaria have both reached 100%. Despite the ether neutral extract, suspected side effects were found in the pathological slices of individual animals. Malaria can only be used clinically after it is confirmed to be safe. Once the clinical observation period of the year is missed. , we have to wait another year, so Tu Youyou submitted a voluntary drug trial report to the leader and also encouraged her colleagues to participate. tml3
"Although artemisinin was discovered almost half a century ago, its underlying mechanisms still need to be studied."
However, the first clinical observation of artemisinin started poorly.
1973 In September 2019, in the first clinical observation of artemisinin tablets in Hainan, only 1 of the 5 cases of falciparum malaria in the first trial was effective, and 2 cases had some effect, but the malaria parasite was not completely killed. Another 2 The example is invalid.
A series of questions troubled Tu Youyou: It is not a problem of the purity of artemisinin, nor is it a problem of animal experiments and data, is it the dosage form? Hainan clinical trial personnel sent the tablets back to Beijing, everyone? The tablets felt too hard to be crushed with a mortar. Obviously, the disintegration problem of and would affect the absorption of the drug. Therefore, Tu Youyou decided to put the original powder of artemisinin drug directly into capsules and conduct another clinical trial. .This time, patients averaged The body temperature returned to normal within 31 hours, indicating that the efficacy of artemisinin capsules is consistent with the laboratory efficacy.
From chemical substances to drugs, artemisinin research never ends 1982. In 2017, Tu Youyou received the invention certificate and medal at the National Science and Technology Awards Conference as the first inventor of the new anti-malarial drug artemisinin. Good news for troubled patients. According to World Health Organization statistics, more than 200 million malaria patients worldwide benefit from artemisinin combination therapy every year, and the number of malaria deaths has steadily dropped from 736,000 in 2000. 409,000 people in 2019 The discovery of artemisinin saved millions of lives around the world
Tu Youyou won 2015. The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was heard from the Nobel Prize podium at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden for the first time; the title of Tu Youyou’s academic report was “Artemisinin—— Traditional Chinese medicine is a gift to the world”
Facing the honor, Tu Youyou remained as calm as ever. Before the candidates for the " Medal of the Republic " were announced, the selection team had contacted Tu Youyou. At that time, she was confirming a series of questions over and over again: Am I qualified for such an important honor? Did the organization ask for everyone’s opinions? …She didn’t agree to accept it until the other party repeatedly confirmed the guarantee.
Living in an ordinary residential building in Chaoyang District, Beijing, Tu Youyou is still not used to being a "star" scientist, and she still devotes her energy to scientific research. Thanks to Tu Youyou's continuous efforts, in August 2019, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences held a foundation laying ceremony for the artemisinin research center in Daxing, Beijing; the white main building of the visionary research center is like a vibrant artemisia annua.
"Although artemisinin was discovered almost half a century ago, its underlying mechanisms still need to be studied." Tu Youyou hopes that future generations will make breakthroughs.
April 25, 2019 is the 12th World Malaria Day. Scientists from the Artemisinin Research Center and the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences proposed a reasonable response to "artemisinin resistance" in the New England Journal of Medicine. . It was completed by the specially appointed expert, researcher Wang Jigang, as the first author, and the team guided by Tu Youyou. In the future, the anti-malarial mechanism of artemisinin will be the focus of her and the scientific research team’s research.
A grass that helps the world and a heart that serves the country. In response to the new coronavirus epidemic, Tu Youyou called on scientific research and medical workers around the world to invest in the prevention and control of major infectious diseases with an open attitude and a spirit of cooperation...
(Wang Junping, "People's Daily" February 4, 2021 Japan)
Biographies
Tu Youyou is a lifelong researcher at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, a winner of the country’s highest science and technology award, and a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. For more than 60 years, she has never stopped researching and practicing traditional Chinese medicine. On October 5, 2015, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden announced that the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine would be awarded to Tu Youyou and two other scientists in recognition of their achievements in research on the treatment of parasitic diseases. This is the highest award received by the Chinese medical community so far, and it is also the highest award received for the achievements of traditional Chinese medicine.
In 2019, Tu Youyou and his team proposed a practical treatment plan to deal with the problem of "artemisinin resistance". Tu Youyou loves science and pursues medicine. For more than 60 years, her longing for and exploration of the medical science of the motherland has been Tu Youyou's consistent life choice.
The article is excerpted from: People's Daily Publishing House " I am a Communist: The Great Heroine "
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