The Mutants Have Arrived; X-Men Only A Generation Away

A recent news story indicates that a 4 year old has been discovered in Germany who, through a genetic mutation, blocks the production of muscle-limiting protein myostatin. The result...hulk-like strength. I don't want to meet this kid in a dark alley in five years. It'd be really embarrassing to be beaten up by a 10 year old.

Doctors discover a toddler muscle man

Apparently, the mutation is 'natural.' I believe it's likely that over use of chemicals, pesticides, insecticides, etc. is beginning to cause a propensity toward genetic mutation which will only increase with time and continued breeding of contaminated individuals (pretty much all of us). This case demonstrates that mutation does not necessarily mean disability and can even mean enhanced ability. Maybe this kid is the first X-Man (that we know of)?

Yeah but we are all mutants. Each and every human has a mutation of some sort except most of them aren't worth anything and don't harm us. others such as this kid have noticeable ones that do affect him in some way.

I'll be impressed when they start flying, absorbing energy through touch, being able to make things explode by touch, and being able to control the weather. When this happens then maybe we can think of XMEN

That article reads a lot like a trashy tabloid. And no pictures either.

Originally posted by AZLS1
That article reads a lot like a trashy tabloid. And no pictures either.

Will ABC be a better source for you?
ABC
Or what about any of these?

Lucky kid. I need a mutation like that.

here is a link with a picture and there is a added link of more depth

story.news.yahoo.com.../040623/480/ny19206232119

Firepoker

Apparently it's real. Have a look.
news.google.com...

So is this kids body is naturally creating a effect that is same as say taking growth hormones? If so can this mutation have a very bad long term effect on him the same as long term use of GH. This kid mutation is very interesting but a x-man he is not even if he turns out to be 9 ft tall and weigh 500lbs of all muscle a bullet will still drop him the same as anyone. He may have a bright future in the NFL though

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
So is this kids body is naturally creating a effect that is same as say taking growth hormones? If so can this mutation have a very bad long term effect on him the same as long term use of GH. This kid mutation is very interesting but a x-man he is not even if he turns out to be 9 ft tall and weigh 500lbs of all muscle a bullet will still drop him the same as anyone. He may have a bright future in the NFL though

The articles state that his docters are afraid he'll have heart problems lateron in his life.

Heartproblems are typicaly what you get from steroids. So yes, hes likely to suffer the same effect as long term steroid abusers.

blocks the production of muscle-limiting protein myostatin. The result...hulk-like strength

All i want to know is where can i get myself something that does the same so i can go hulk on people .

I was always one of those kids who dreamed of having some kind of mutant power and envied the X-Men for all I was worth, so I'd be absolutely thrilled if something like that really ended up occuring here in our sometimes oh-so-ordinary world. I think the real way to tell if this child really heralds the coming of a new era will be to watch for other mutations over the next few years. If the trend continues, or rather, if this event becomes a trend, then maybe we really do have superheroes in our combined future.

This is nothing new...please come on! We have all hopefully heard of the stories of the Titans in the ancient world and the many, many, of rumors of people who have God like powers in all contients arounds the world. This is nothing truely special but it is worth taking about. Mostly because of the future of gentic malipulations that will truely change the face of many unlike anything nature has come up with yet. Maybe this child is the beginning of such thing, maybe not?

Just to add some oddity to the discussion, I found a site which demonstrates 'beneficial' mutations discovered over the years.

Examples of Beneficial Mutations in Humans

I don't know how hokey this Robert Williams guy is, but the mutations section is a bit interesting.

Thank you for the additional links.

I think my co-workers were a little suprised when a half naked boy appeared on my picture from one of those links though.

I overheard an interesting conspiracy angle to the story today... a coworker was musing that the child could be the third generation product of a Nazi-Aryan genetic experiment.

There will be no "X-men." There have been mutatsn before. They come, and go. This has probably something to do with his parents, or some relatives. Perhaps they were exposed to radiation?

Hey, 7 pounds is not that much (that's 3.17 kilos). The article says that non even adults can hold up that much weight. I totally disagree: I am not an athlete, not even fit, but I can easily hold 10 kilos with my arms extended quite long.

And my nephew who's 21 months old can easily lift a 2-kilo weight.

Masterp, you wont be saying that if that kid smashed you!!

Originally posted by Amiga_de_los_Gatos
I overheard an interesting conspiracy angle to the story today... a coworker was musing that the child could be the third generation product of a Nazi-Aryan genetic experiment.

Actually, I think something like that is more likely. Considering that it's immoral, unethical, and probably illegal to perform genetic experimentation on babies/embryos, it would make sense for the corporation(s) and scientist(s) possibly responsible for this to pass it off as a random genetic mutation. I'm not saying that a beneficial(?) mutation is impossible given the amount of drugs, chemicals, and/or radiation his parents may have consumed or been exposed to over their lifetimes. However, it just seems to me that artifical manipulation of the boy's genes is not an impossibility. Especially the way doctors and scientists were practically drooling over the potential of myostatin protein blockers in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article I read yesterday.

Unfortunately they shortened it today and edited out the excessive drooling. But I did save it on my computer, so I'll show you what I'm talking about.

"Now we can say that myostatin acts the same way in humans as in animals," said the boy's physician, Dr. Markus Schuelke, a professor in the child neurology department at Charite/University Medical Center Berlin. "We can apply that knowledge to humans, including trial therapies for muscular dystrophy."

Given the huge potential market for such drugs, researchers at universities and pharmaceutical companies already are trying to find a way to limit the amount and activity of myostatin in the body. Wyeth has just begun human tests of a genetically engineered antibody designed to neutralize myostatin.

Dr. Lou Kunkel, director of the genomics program at Boston Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics and genetics at Harvard Medical School, said success is possible within several years.

"Just decreasing this protein by 20, 30, 50 percent can have a profound effect on muscle bulk," said Kunkel, who is among the doctors participating in the Wyeth research.

Muscular dystrophy is the world's most common genetic disease. There is no cure and the most common form, Duchenne's, usually kills before adulthood. The few treatments being tried to slow its progression have serious side effects.

Muscle wasting also is common in the elderly and patients with diseases such as cancer and AIDS.

"If you could find a way to block myostatin activity, you might slow the wasting process," said Dr. Se-Jin Lee, the Johns Hopkins professor whose team created the "mighty mice."

Lee said he believes a myostatin blocker also could suppress fat accumulation and thus thwart the development of diabetes. Lee and Johns Hopkins would receive royalties for any myostatin-blocking drug made by Wyeth.

Dr. Eric Hoffman, director of Children's National Medical Center's Research Center for Genetic Medicine, said he believes a muscular dystrophy cure will be found, but he is unsure whether it will be a myostatin-blocking drug, another treatment or a combination, because about a dozen genes have some effect on muscles.

He said a mystotatin-blocking drug could help other groups of people, including astronauts and others who lose muscle mass during long stints in zero gravity or when immobilized by illness or a broken limb.

Researchers would not disclose the German boy's identity but said he was born to a somewhat muscular mother, a 24-year-old former professional sprinter. Her brother and three other close male relatives all were unusually strong, with one of them a construction worker able to unload heavy curbstones by hand.

In the mother, one copy of the gene is mutated and the other is normal; the boy has two mutated copies. One almost definitely came from his father, but no information about him has been disclosed. The mutation is very rare in people.

The boy is healthy now, but doctors worry he could eventually suffer heart or other health problems.

In the past few years, scientists have seen great potential in myostatin-blocking strategies.

Internet marketers have been hawking "myostatin-blocking" supplements to bodybuilders, though doctors say the products are useless and perhaps dangerous.

Some researchers are trying to turn off the myostatin gene in chickens to produce more meat per bird. And several breeds of cattle have natural variations in the gene that, aided by selective breeding, give them far more muscle and less fat than other steer.

Sorry I can't give you a link to the original, but, like I said, they chopped it. Here' what they have up now. Much less obvious.

seattlepi.nwsource.com...

EDIT: Basementaddix posted a link to a CNN article that still has the full article in a thread he started in the Medical Issues and Conspiracies section.

www.cnn.com...





[edit on 25-6-2004 by Ischyros]

Fart man could be possible, what person with super human abilitys could withstand a rancid swift pooft to the face? Sure it wouldn't be "X-men" but fart man can make a bunch of ppl leave in terror.