Myostatin Update 012006

dallasmsl · #1 January 20th, 2006, 05:06 PM

I promised to keep the group updated on any news regarding Myostatin. So, here is the latest:

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/...ource=r_health

Nothing "radical" just interesting.

Dave Sanchez

Gene · #2 January 20th, 2006, 07:59 PM

Fell asleep in the first paragraph. Can someone please translate the salient points in 25 words or less?

dallasmsl · #3 January 21st, 2006, 07:13 AM

You were probably a lot like me during science classes.....asleep.

musclebaz · #4 January 21st, 2006, 03:29 PM

Ok Folks I'll have a try, though a little more than 25 words.

Becoming frail is complex and has many causes. Males are less likely to become frail. Resistance exercise in later life can combat frailty. (Relevant to all you people out there who shift weights). More detailed study required for the use of testosterone and vitamin D in combatting frailty as is stem cell treatment. Article suggests that blocking Myostatin D may also help in combatting frailty.

Hope that helps
musclebaz

dallasmsl · #5 January 22nd, 2006, 02:43 AM

Thanks Musclebaz! Like I said when I originally posted, nothing earthshattering about the article. But interesting just the same.

dave sanchez

Bossman · #6 January 23rd, 2006, 12:20 AM

Myostatin and Myostatin Inhibitors: The Next Big Supplement Scam

by Paul Cribb, B.H.Sci HMS
AST Director of Research

......The Hopkins scientists identified several proteins, namely follistatin, mutant activin type II receptors, and myostatin propeptide, that can effectively block the activity of myostatin.6 Remember, if you can block myostatin, muscle growth will literally explode! Paul Delia reported this information in May last year.7

Now, a collective brains-trust of unscrupulous sports supplement marketers have recently cottoned on to this information and are attempting to pull more scams.8 These pumpkin heads are trying their best to make consumers believe that they have supplements that athletes can take that will block the activity of myostatin. I believe they also get the bulk of their product knowledge from Miss. Cleo the tarot card reader. If not product knowledge, they certainly get their marketing ideas from her.

The myostatin blocking-ability was not achieved by simply taking a pill or even receiving an injection. The Hopkins scientists are the world leaders in this technology, and they have only just recently been able to produce this ability to block myostatin using the latest, state-of-the-art genetic engineering techniques. What we are talking about is embryonic microinjections (gene manipulation before birth), numerous cross-linking experiments and cell cloning techniques to produce mice with various levels of the specific binding affinity mutations.

Myostatin is licensed to MetaMorphix, a company founded by one of the main researchers Se-Jin Lee, M.D., Ph.D., in 1995. This company was established to commercialize on work by Hopkins and other pharmaceutical companies in the field of growth and differentiation factors. Myostatin is sublicensed to American Home Products and Cape Aquaculture Technologies. The authors and the University own MetaMorphix stock and the authors also own CAT stock. Lee is a consultant to MetaMorphix and Cape Aquaculture Technologies. The other lead author of this research, Alexandra McPherron, Ph.D., is a consultant to Cape Aquaculture Technologies.

This is cutting-edge, multi-million dollar genetic research and it appears to be stitched up tight by some big companies and brilliant research minds. Do you really think some little snake-oil selling supplement company has the capacity, contacts, or finances to obtain this type of technology and then surpass it? Yeah, right! Not by a long shot.
The research on myostatin and the ability to block myostatin is very exciting. In 5 to 10 years, when it is possible to isolate, stabilize then synthesize on a large scale, the myostatin propeptide and follistatin protein blockers, it will be in the tight grip of billion dollar pharmaceutical companies. These drugs will be only made available on prescription for extreme wasting conditions. That is, until they find their way onto the black market, and then, god help this sport!

Now these companies with their "make-believe" products would love you to think they have the technology to produce such myostatin blockers. They will go to great lengths concocting tales of top secret, undercover research. They'll spin the story well. You better believe they will.
But by now you should know the script. First they will come out with a pill or a powder. Then another company will come out with the "better" liquid version. Of course it will be stabilized and guaranteed stable for 2 years. Then yet another company will come out with the transdermal myostatin cream that you simply rub on what ever muscle you want to increase the size of. Oh, and don't forget the special "night time" myostatin formula. And why stop there, how about the really special "Myagra-statin" because "girls really want a bigger man." Welcome to Fantasy Island, I mean the sports supplement industry

dallasmsl · #7 January 23rd, 2006, 12:58 PM

Ohhhh, Man!!! You sure know how to burst a wet dream. <just kiddin>

brent · #8 January 24th, 2006, 02:30 AM

Well, maybe right now they can only do it with genes, but I've noticed that the impossible seems to happen as our technology advances. I still wouldn't discount it yet.

Bossman · #9 January 25th, 2006, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brent

Well, maybe right now they can only do it with genes, but I've noticed that the impossible seems to happen as our technology advances. I still wouldn't discount it yet.

From gene splicing to poppin a pill? Sorry Bros but I don't think so. But like the article says, They'll be plenty who will claim to have the real thing.

I guess i'll have to stick to the stuff that makes my nuts shrink and my chest EXPLODE. LOL

nypup2train · #10 January 26th, 2006, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bossman

From gene splicing to poppin a pill? Sorry Bros but I don't think so.

You're right, Bossman... making the process as easy as popping a "pill" isn't likely to happen. But I don't think brent is completely deluded in thinking that there's hope that these techniques (and many others) will leave the realm of laboratory test-tube-baby manipulation at some point.

The holy grail of any sort of post-medicinal, post-chemical manipulation of the human body -- treatment of disease, gene splicing, non-invasive surgery -- is nanotechnology. The ethical and moral debates on the topic are sure to put even the fights over cloning and stem cell research to shame, but like it or not, the days when some form of direct mechanical manipulation of the human body at the cellular level are on the horizon. The potential benefits (and potential for profit) are simply too many and too enticing NOT to pursue, and current technology has already shown that we will eventually succeed in creating functional nanomachines.

So, there's definitely a possibility that within (some of) our lifetimes, everything we know about medicine and the treatment of disease in the human body will be turned on its head. What can be done -- and, separately, what will be done -- with the technology is anyone's guess right now.

[COLOR="DarkSlateGray"](Personally, I'm not so keen on letting a bunch of little machines go tooling around inside me making adjustments. My computer can't even tell time reliably. And as for human oversight, well, they already have to write "YES" and "NO" on pre-operative patients' limbs in magic marker, just to be sure nobody gets confused in the operating room. So I'm not expecting any help from the human element...)[/COLOR]