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Immunosuppressants & Organ Transplantation [Biologist]


Skull132

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HOKAY,


In relation to the Biologist job, and the currently under way Skrell biology rework, I need a quick few ideas. Namely, for drugs! Everyone likes drugs.


Anyways, what am I talking about here? When transplanting an organ, unless you match the patient's bloodtypes and possibly a few more strings of DNA related data (I need to confirm that this system works at some point, actually), the organ gets rejected. There is no way to stop this/cure this/fix this. So, as it stands, there are only two alternatives:

  • Use a mechanical organ
  • Find a matching donor from monkeys

 

This leaves us with very little control over the matter. So how about we exert some? Here are my ideas:

  1. Light immunosuppressant -- A drug which, when administered, starts messing with the receiving organism and the transplanted organ. It outright combats rejection, and also, eventually, makes the organ fully fitting for the receiving organism. The only limitation is that the drug only works when the donor species is the same as the receiving species. If the species do not match, this will have no effect what so ever. Otherwise, should have no real side-effects.
  2. Heavy immunosuppressant -- A drug which, when administered, starts messing with the receiving organism and the transplanted organ. Where as the light version effectively "cured" rejection (that is to say: eventually makes it impossible for the organism to reject the transplanted organ), this one would simple keep it at bay. So, rejection is negated only when the chemical is present in the organism. Might sound worse? Yes. But, this one would also affect organs that are transplanted across species. So, basically, give a human the Skrell symbiote, and it won't turn parasitic for as long as this chemical is present in the body. This drug should also, maybe, have some tangible side-effects? Although, the user already becomes reliant on it, as otherwise, they'll pretty much die from organ rejection.
  3. Some machine doohickey -- A machine which has the capacity to pre-emptively prep an organ for transplant into an organism. Washed down version of how it'll work (when implemented, it will be harder to use than this rundown, as both this and the light immunosuppressant need to be equally viable (at least without RnD staff)):
    • Take organ designated for transplantation
    • Shove organ into machine
    • Inject target blood/DNA into machine
    • Press button
    • Organ is now good for a no-drugs transplantation, as long as the species match

 

Why am I posting this here?


Weeell. I need feedback on the general gist. Plus, I need the recipes and names for the chemicals, along with potential side-effects. So, fire away!

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I don't think Potassium Chloride and its derivative actually stop the heart, and even if they do, it'd be nice to have something to restart it.


It'd be nice to actually be able to do heart transplants, though things as they are I can't imagine any situation in which it'd be necessary.


Something to allow brain transplants without the cloning step for optimum mad science would be cool too.


As for side effects - I'd think suppressing the immune system would make someone much more vulnerable to, say, Gibbington's. Something like doubled progression rate for diseases.

Also random sneezing/coughing bugs, which wouldn't be able to affect people with actual immune systems.

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HOKAY,

Heavy immunosuppressant

 

People are always thinking of diseases for their characters which look somewhat out of place in 2457, an actual condition which causes discomfort and requires a constant dosage of medicine which may cause unnerving side effects would mean that people who are into this sort of stuff can actually have a character whose RP disease is supported by both lore and mechanics, I like that.

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The way organ printing works today has a method to decrease or nullify the rejection factor. That is, you have the scaffold of the organ and blood or bone marrow stem cells from the patient. Then they do a few other things.


While we've obviously come a long way 2457, I think we could use the same method of using blood to grow an organ specifically for that particular patient.

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The way organ printing works today has a method to decrease or nullify the rejection factor. That is, you have the scaffold of the organ and blood or bone marrow stem cells from the patient. Then they do a few other things.


While we've obviously come a long way 2457, I think we could use the same method of using blood to grow an organ specifically for that particular patient.

 

That exists in the code. The "Organ printer" I gave to the biologist is actually a child of the actual printer. The actual printer works exactly as you described it: you inject donor blood, you press button, and you print a perfectly matching organ.


Why I haven't given access to it: Beeeeecause it's cheap, right now. As in. It perpetuates the issue we're trying to combat: if genetics is boring by the virtue of you just having to press a button to make clone, then having a tool that functions exactly as I described above (because it does, verbatim) would end with the same thing: there's nothing to watch over, there's nothing to involve yourself in. You just. Inject, button, surgery, done.


Now, organ growing is on my list, I just. Want it to be more. Y'know? Instead of just pressing a button. But I predict it to be like, 2 months away.

 



 

Also, I want to add emphasis to the heavy immunosuppressant. Basically: transplanting alien organs into other creatures. I want to bring the biologists into a place where genesplicing, species-crafting is an actual thing they can do. And for that, the heavy immunosuppressant is meant.

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Guest Marlon Phoenix

I like the immunosuppressants. However, I think it would show love for the vanilla genetics role (if we're keeping that) if we allowed the genetics of organs to be tinkered with to have a chance to 'match' with the doner. IE a unathi limb is popped into the machine, and the mechanics happen, and it pops out a match.


Perhaps you 'scan' the doner, 'scan' the limb, and try to fill in missing blocks or whatever, with a chance of failure giving you a rotten limb?

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did some digging on some old textbooks. they can be administered through injections or capsules, depending on the type (but let's keep it simple)


azathioprine: used in the real world for preventing a kidney transplant failure.


mycophenolic acid: this one is more general, all around immunosuppressants.


a lot of these have the side effects of weakness though, and missing dosages actually requires you to call the physician for a check up because even a slight deviancy in prescription/time can cause a failure.


but again let's keep it simple?

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uh immunosuppressants do not cause seizures


they do however:


increase chances of infections (they're suppressing your immune system so huge surprise there)

weakness

loss of appetite

nausea/vomiting

increased hair growth (great for bald cures)

tremblings

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Just a suggestion. Immunosuppressants should have a 'limit' of them in a organism. Let's assume that the 'limit' is 10 units. So when you have 10 units of the drug in your organism, and after you inject yourself with another 10 units, you STILL have 10 units of that drug in your organism. That would prevent everyone from eating twenty pills of the drug and forgetting about the 'rejection'-thing for the rest of shift. Also, that would make transplantations rare, dangerous and highly dependent on chemistry and science. You would constantly watch your drug's levels in your organism, and you would need to know when to inject yourself with that drug.

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@Kekboot: So basically idea 3 from my original list.


Now can someone please actually help me with my original request of: "Halp, I need recipes, names and ideas for potential side-effects beyond rejection." :<

 


I already gave you a name and you took no note of it baka-senpai!

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@Kekboot: So basically idea 3 from my original list.


Now can someone please actually help me with my original request of: "Halp, I need recipes, names and ideas for potential side-effects beyond rejection." :<

 


I already gave you a name and you took no note of it baka-senpai!

 

It was one of two ;-; And still lacking a recipe.

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Dreamix, that limit is basically the overdose variable. If you have more than that in your body, then you start taking toxin damage and also liver damage (eventually).

I don't know how the overdose mechanics work, but: Not really, you can still enter a sleeper, and ask a doctor to spam you with inaprovaline and dylovene alternately, so you can have 235325 tricord in you blood to forget about that toxin damage. But I guess, the liver damage could work.

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