'Mighty Mice' Made Mightier

'Mighty Mice' Made Mightier

www.sciencedaily.com

The Johns Hopkins scientist who first showed that the absence of the protein myostatin leads to oversized muscles in mice and men has now found a second protein, follistatin, whose overproduction in mice lacking myostatin doubles the muscle-building effect.

(visit the link for the full news article)

WoW! Guys you need to check out this mices! You know as soon as I saw that I thought first of the medical benefits that this could have, but then the conspiracy said of me started thinking how the armies around the wrold would start using this to create supersoldiers and how many athletes wil use something like this to you know what purposes.

www.sciencedaily.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Dang! Those are muscular mice! So how long before human trials begin?

reply to post by Beachcoma


Well the article mention that one drug is currently under development but does not mentions when clinical trials are going to begin.


[edit on 29-8-2007 by Bunch]

Very interesting article.

My Uncle is a Geneticist and Molecular Oncologist at a University in Canada that is working with John Hopkins on this same project.
The point of his research is to find a cure for muscular dystrophy, and this is a large step forward.

While super soldiers may be on the minds of some, this research could be very valuable to people with a number of diseases and help elderly people retain muscle mass as they age.

I believe the early work concentrated on myelin, and thus the creation of the shiverer mouse and chimaeras derived from them. It was all baby steps to get to this point, and in Canada this work has been ongoing for many years at places like UBC, McMaster, and McGill. Data is now shared with researchers all over the world thanks to the internet, and things seem to be speeding up towards a real breakthrough.

Although I can imagine abuses of this new discovery, I'm sure the medical applications will supersede super soldiers or massive athletes. And the livestock industry will probably get the first crack at this to make larger animals for our consumption.

That's amazing! Now I know where to order my snake food.... Those are some huge mice!

Wow now I'm just imagining an army of huge soldiers.... scary.

[edit on 29-8-2007 by Chiiru]

reply to post by anxietydisorder


Very cool AD!

Maybe you can ask your uncle if he knows when this is going to be used or is it being used already in patients.

And as far for they use in livestock, if I'm not mistaken they actually go the other way, meaning the less muscle the better, at least for the consumption of meat, now if you talking about a massive bull in a rodeo! Yihaaaa! I'm all for that!



[edit on 29-8-2007 by Bunch]

reply to post by Chiiru


Snake food? That gave me an image of a snake unhinging and gobbling up one of these mice. Moments later the snake explodes and the ubermouse starts to eat the snake.

It will be interesting to see what the developmental difference is between the engineered results and the drug-induced.

All this research is tied together in some way through the thousands of people working in labs around the world, but the first human trials of gene therapy started over a year ago for one type of MD.

The Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., today voted that the first American study of gene therapy in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) can move forward, the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) announced.

The study reviewed by the RAC will test the safety of a laboratory-engineered gene for the muscle protein dystrophin tucked inside a modified adeno-associated virus. Dystrophin is a protein needed but missing in boys and young men with DMD.

In the MDA-funded trial, six boys with DMD, a devastating childhood muscle disease that affects some 30,000 boys in the United States and results in death from respiratory or heart failure in the 20s, will undergo injections of the gene into their biceps muscles. One biceps will receive gene injections, while the other receives sham injections.

After about six weeks, samples of muscle cells from each biceps will be examined for evidence of dystrophin production and signs of any damaging reactions, such as an unwanted immune response.

The study participants, who will receive injections and monitoring at Columbus Children’s Research Institute, part of Ohio State University, will undergo many other types of safety testing during and after the gene transfer.
www.mdausa.org...

That article is from Dec. 2004 but the trial actually got started in March of 2006.

The first gene therapy human trial in the United States for a form of muscular dystrophy is under way.

The clinical trial for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) tests the safety and effectiveness of a therapy that was developed over two decades by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh.

The trial was launched March 28, at Columbus Children's Hospital in Ohio, an affiliate of Ohio State University's School of Medicine. In the trial, six boys with DMD will receive replacement genes for an essential muscle protein.

Each of the boys will receive replacement genes via injection into a bicep of one arm and a placebo in the other arm. Neither the investigators nor the participants will know which muscle got the genes. After several weeks, an analysis of the injected muscle tissue's microscopic appearance, as well as extensive testing of the health and strength of the trial participants, will reveal whether gene therapy for DMD is likely to be safe and whether it's likely to result in persistent production of the essential protein in muscle cells.
www.medicalnewstoday.com...

When I speak to my Uncle I'll ask him about this latest development and post his thoughts in this thread.

Phew, imagine if they did that to full grown rats instead of just mice. An army of those suckers would be quite intimidating.

What makes you think they haven't?

They'd make an excellent yet subtle form of bio-warfare. Imagine, if your typical pair of rats can have as many as 12,000 descendants in a year, all one would have to do is release several pairs in a crowded city and let nature and evolution do the work. In a year or two they'd be fires everywhere because these rats are extra-strong and able to cause more damage to wiring.

Sca-ry!

Don't discount the transgenic rat, they are used more than mice, and one company will custom design them for you.

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www.genoway.com...

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Soldiers Of Futures Past

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Originally posted by anxietydisorder
Go to Genoway for all your rat modification needs.

I'll take one 20 pound rat which answers to name of Java. I'd also like to have a secret command word that I can whisper at it to make it look to the sky, stand on it's tippie toes and prance around the room while squeaking out Bethoven's fifth.