New 'Mighty Mouse' Formula Found

mystyc writes to tell us that scientists at Johns Hopkins have improved upon their original "mighty mice" discovery. Teamed with the biotech firm MetaMorphix and pharmaceutical company Wyeth, they have found a new agent that interacts with the muscle-limiting protein myostatin that was able to trigger a 60% increase in muscle size after just two weekly injections.

Comments

What happened to the heart?

[BerntB]

Increased heart size is dangerous, right? This increase all muscles, so...

What are the effects on the heart?

normal people

[rayde]

so my question is this... if something like this is proven to be safe in humans, allowing large increases in muscle growth, will it ever be available to the public? if not... why not?

Steroids have long been banned in sports because they can have catastrauphic side-effects, and pro atheletes are often seen as role models. however, if a product came out that could dramatically strengthen humans, without nasty side-effects, for what reason shouldn't the average person be able to go out and in two weeks have significantly larger muscles? should it be regulated? and if so, why?

there are ethical implications here... the haves vs. the have-nots... those who can afford to increase their muscle mass using the products would perhaps become a superior segment of the human race. imagine a scenario where western countries and their super-citizens gain a distinct physical advantage over the less wealthy countries.

yet think of the productivity gains that would be possible in manufacturing, construction, or other physically intensive occupations. strengthening your workers could bring huge advantages.

it's a very interesting issue, i'm sure one that we'll see popping up again in the future.

Re:normal people

[TheTerrorized]

AFAIK, the FDA does not approve drugs that improve regular people, just drugs that can fix problems already there. Many college students take ritalin to allow them to focus with low side-effects but they still cannot get it without a prescription.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I know it's funny...

[Cherita Chen]

I know the title of this article is kind of funny, and there are a lot of funny posts on this thread, however; if you are interested in learning a little more about this, and wish to see a different perspective on the issue (such as practical appliactions, etc...) Check out the following link.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6065

Seeing that the source for the main article is currently ./'d, you should have time to have a gander :-)