The 101-year-old legendary life ended, he is the first generation of clinical anesthesiologist and doctor of pharmacology in China.
Writing | Wang Hang
Source | “Medical Community” Public Account
At 21:48 on October 6, 2022, Mr. Ding Guangsheng, a well-known pharmacologist in my country, a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, was ineffective due to ineffective treatment. Shanghai passed away at the age of 101.
Ding Guangsheng is the first generation of clinical anesthesiologists, pharmacologists and editorialists in China. Since returning to China, he has set up a pharmacology research team from scratch. The drug he participated in the development not only saved the lives of many schistosomiasis patients, but also was the first Chinese drug to be imitated and used by Americans; he won the “Taofen Publishing Award”, To make “Acta of Chinese Pharmacology” a world core journal…
Working for more than 70 years, he has devoted himself to cardiovascular pharmacology, anti-schistosomiasis, new drug research of heavy metal antidote and medical information dissemination, and dedicated his life to the medical career he loves.
On March 11, 1986, Ding Guangsheng was working in the office of Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica.
China’s first generation of clinical anesthesiologists
and Doctor of Pharmacology
Ding Guangsheng was born in an intellectual family in Beijing in 1921. His parents both had experience in studying in the UK. He was the earliest generation of chemists and teachers in my country. His uncles were also chemists in the university. or a physics teacher.
On March 2, 1929, Ding Guangsheng took a group photo with his father Ding Xuxian, his mother Chen Shu and his brother in Suzhou.
Under the influence of his family, Ding Guangsheng has been aspired to “save the country with science” since childhood. Even in the turbulent times of the Anti-Japanese War, he never gave up his studies.
In 1936, he was admitted to the chemical engineering department of Suzhou Middle School and Senior High School. He had just studied for a year and a half. The urban area of Suzhou was bombed by Japanese aircraft. The 16-year-old Ding Guangsheng fled with his parents and successively went to Hubei Province. and two high schools in Guangxi Province.
The following year, Ding Guangsheng was admitted to the Central University School of Medicine for a 6-year course. After graduation, he was recruited to serve as an assistant resident physician in the Department of Internal Medicine of the Military Hospital. He was an assistant to the surgical authority Professor Dong Bingqi.
In surgery, the level of anesthesia is critical. However, at that time, there was no clinical anesthesiology in China. In order to cooperate with the development of medical care after the Anti-Japanese War, the Ministry of Education set up three quotas for clinical anesthesiology when recruiting public-funded international students in 1946.
Ding Guangsheng successfully passed the examination for studying abroad. In 1947, he went to the University of Chicago to work as a clinical anesthesiologist. At the same time, he studied for a doctor of pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacology. During his stay in the United States, he mainly carried out research on the metabolism and toxicology of the local anesthetic procaine, and established a micro-determination method for procaine and its metabolite, diethylaminoethanol.
On June 16, 1950, Ding Guangsheng received his Ph.D. in the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Chicago.
With a serious and responsible work style, Ding Guangsheng obtained his Ph.D. in only 2 years and 9 months. In the year of his graduation, when the Korean War broke out, when the domestic environment was not yet clear, Ding Guangsheng was determined to return to China for development, but he was also obstructed and controlled by the US government.
“When I learned that I insisted on returning to China, the Americans started a ‘carrot and stick’ policy towards me – both hard and soft. I had to write a letter to the then State Council asking, and later took Only after the reply letter from the Chinese government welcoming me back to China did the U.S. government let me go.”
In Ding Guangsheng’s opinion, the “spirit of new medicine” cannot be separated from the word “patriotism”. He once said: “Only when you put the motherland in your heart can you truly make a ‘for the country’, ” A new medicine for the people.”
Testing drugs by myself,Developed the first in my country
Broad-spectrum antidote for heavy metals
Ding Guangsheng soon received job offers from many medical schools after returning to China. Under the recommendation of his uncle, Professor Zhu Kezhen, he chose to join the drug research team led by Zhao Chengyi from Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica. .
ShanghaiThe predecessor of the Institute of Materia Medica was the Institute of Materia Medica of the National Peiping Research Institute. From its establishment in 1932 to the early 1950s, its research work lacked the cooperation of pharmacological work, and samples were often sent to the United States for pharmacological experiments. As the situation at home and abroad changes, in order not to be “stuck in the neck”, the Shanghai Institute of Medicine urgently needs to establish its own pharmacology research laboratory.
As soon as he entered the unit, Ding Guangsheng set up a pharmacology laboratory and an animal room, ranging from designing and supervising production to purchasing tables, chairs, cages, instruments and equipment. fencing.
In April 1956, Ding Guangsheng (the first from the right) and his colleagues went to Caohejing, Shanghai to visit the new animal room of the Institute of Medicine.
By the end of 1954, the pharmacology research laboratory had grown to more than 20 people, and the scale was first seen. In the following 30 years, he successively led the establishment of the earliest anti-hypertensive and anti-schistosomiasis drug research laboratories in China, enjoying a certain reputation at home and abroad.
After the liberation of the People’s Republic of China, my country’s medical and health level was weak, and there were a large number of patients with schistosomiasis. At that time, antimony was mainly used for treatment, which had serious toxic and side effects, and many people lost their lives due to the drugs.
Ding Guangsheng promoted the pharmacological research of antimony. In March 1957, he cooperated with his colleagues to develop an innovative drug with detoxification effect, sodium dimercaptosuccinate, and launched a clinical trial in Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital the following year.
In 1991, a group photo of the three main researchers of dimercaptosuccinate sodium and dimercaptosuccinic acid (from left: Xie Yuyuan, Ding Guangsheng, Liang Youyi). Source: Shanghai Institute of Medicine.
In order to verify the effect, Ding Guangsheng tried the medicine and became the first person to inject this medicine intravenously. Clinical results show that the drug can not only detoxify antimony, but also detoxify many heavy metals, such as lead poisoning, mercury poisoning, and even arsenic poisoning, becoming the first broad-spectrum detoxification drug for heavy metals in my country.
On the basis of this drug, Ding Guangsheng et al. conducted a systematic pharmacological study on oral dimercaptosuccinic acid. Animal experiments have confirmed that it has low toxicity and is easy to absorb, and has obvious curative effect on the treatment of various metal poisonings.
In October 1977, dimercaptosuccinic acid and sodium dimercaptosuccinic acid were included in the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China. In 1991, the U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved dimercaptosuccinic acid for the treatment of lead poisoning in children.
From medical scientist to editorialist
In the field of medical editing, Ding Guangsheng’s achievements are equally remarkable.
In 1979, the first meeting of the National Pharmacological Society was held in Chengdu, and the meeting decided to establish a pharmacological publication, the Chinese Journal of Pharmacology. After the election, Ding Guangsheng took up the responsibility of the editor-in-chief.
After one year, the Journal of Chinese Pharmacology was officially published. After that, he turned all his energy to running the journal and participated in the preparation of the Society of Sci-tech Journal Editors.
The term “editing science” was controversial at the time, Ding Guangsheng once mentioned in his recollection: “Many people say that ‘editing science’ is not even the official name in the world. No, isn’t editing just ‘scissors and paste’? Why set up a society? But I insist that editors learn.”
Therefore, he actively advocated the establishment of a new discipline – editing, and first proposed the term “editology”, which was widely recognized by domestic and foreign counterparts.
In 1982, Ding Guangsheng founded the journal “New Drug and Clinical” (now “Chinese Journal of New Drug and Clinical”), which brought together the medical experience and work achievements of domestic and foreign medical workers. An important source of information for medical research.
Under the leadership of Ding Guangsheng, the Chinese Journal of Pharmacology was included in the Scientific Citation Index (SCI) of the US Institute of Science and Technology Information only five years after its first publication. One of the few Chinese journals. Since then, the journal has been awarded the first prize of the National and Chinese Academy of Sciences journals for many times; “New Drugs and Clinical” has also been awarded the first prize of the National Journal for many times.
Chinese Journal of Pharmacology and other journal covers
In November 1997, Ding Guangsheng won the “Golden Bull Award” of the China Science and Technology Periodical Editors’ Association and the “Taofen Publishing Award” of the China Publishers Association. study”.
References:
[1] Obituary | Mr. Ding Guangsheng, a famous Chinese pharmacologist and editorial scientist, passed away
[2] Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences: Ding Guangsheng’s “New Drug Spirit”
[3]Let the United States imitate the medicine invented by the Chinese for the first time
https:https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/s3vPAMbOIwGkIvGkpV_Aiw
Source: Medicine
Proofreading: Zang Hengjia
Editor in charge: Tian Dongliang
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