That moment when you use your Master’s Degree in Cell and Molecular Biology and your peer-reviewed knowledge of cancer and blood biology to write out a highly accurate reason for Anime Logic…
I need a computer to write it all out (I’m typing this all on mobile), but basically I’m talking about Detective Conan. Can’t explain how one chemical or whatever did all the voodoo magic in the show, but I can use cellular reprogramming, cellular senescence, the immune system, and telomere lengthening to theoretically explain how the hell someone can be shrunk back to an earlier age and may also suffer increased immune deficiencies depending on how old they were at the time of shrinking.
Basically my theory is that APTX4869 targets cells that no longer replicate infinitely, or are in a stage of senescence. This is a hallmark of aging, and, the older you get, the more cellular senescence occurs. Theoretically, you kill enough cells, you die. Maybe the drug reprograms the immune cells into a state of autoimmune attack until ALL cells are dead.
Except in a small subset where maybe, just maybe, it reprograms the cells only to go after the cells in a state of late stage senescence, where the body would stabilize once enough aged cells are no more, and all remaining cells now are either effectively immortal and/or will be destroyed if they age to become no longer viable.
Now, you think, what about the brain? How is that not affected? Blood-brain barrier, baby! The immune system has somewhat packed your brain away in a separate space that isn’t always directly linked to the outside world. The membrane prevents a lot of chemicals from entering and has its own unique immune system on standby at all times. While the rest of the body is reprogrammed, the blood-brain barrier just turns APTX4869 away, hence why cognition and memory are unaffected by the transformation.
This may also account for Haibara, Conan, and even Mary Sera having more bouts of ailment during the show, especially Mary. Their bodies have now acquired autoimmune diseases that go after aging, which is going to put strain on the immune system and result in a higher rate of infection. For Shinichi and Shiho, though, they were both fairly young when the shrinking occurred, so the effect may not have been so hard on the body. Mary was in her 50s. She was much older and the shrinking likely impacted her immunity and cellular flexibility much harder, hence why she is sick more often.
This could also explain why the antidotes are all temporary. The cells have all been reprogrammed now to maintain this stage of youth. The antidotes are able to jumpstart growth and disrupt the resistance to aging temporarily, but it hasn’t gotten to the root of the modifications at the genetic level. Eventually, the medication wears off, and the person is returned to a youthful state.
This also implies that, unless a true antidote is made, all of the shrunken people will be either effectively immortal, looking their shrunken age forever, or never physically age but may eventually perish as a result of the strain their bodies are under.
…ok have fun!
Absolutely banger points! In order to grow that fast, the person would need an enormous amount of calories and stored nutrients to attain growth!
So this could partially contribute to the unstable growth and shrinking - simply the body unable to grow complete and good cells that won’t collapse due to lack of energy and nutrients - OR implies that the tiny body is nutrient dense and primed OR the growth requires a great amount of calories consumed prior to and immediately after growth.
Taking some quick averages from Professor Google, Conan should weigh about 45 lbs (American Units) and, as a teenager, should weigh somewhere between 120 and 140. That means he needs to consume 80 lbs of mass in growth.
Therefore! By conservation of mass, either Conan is a dense mofo and somehow weighs more then Genta by a long shot or he grows and somehow still weighs almost a third of what he is supposed to weigh.
Please all of you continue to do that
