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How A "Superbaby" Is Helping To Find Muscular Dystrophy Treatments
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that a baby boy with unusually big muscles — caused by a gene mutation — is helping scientists to discover new muscular dystrophy drugs. "Myostatin was discovered in mice in 1992 in Lee's Johns Hopkins lab. In 1996 he proved its importance by showing that mice without the myostatin-producing gene got twice as big. The next year he discovered that the bulging Belgian Blue cow was a myostatin mutant, the first of eight prized cattle breeds later found to have the mutation. The company he had co-founded, MetaMorphix, is working on manipulating myostatin to beef up livestock. Wyeth picked up the rights to develop a drug for humans. Its experimental antibody drug produced bulked-up mice in 2002, and results of a trial in adults with muscular dystrophy are expected as early as March."
This is actually pretty cool. I have a step-mother and a half-brother with muscular distrophy.
It won't be a silver bullet, though. His disability is so bad that he's never been able to talk, much less walk on his own. Some of his joints have essentially locked up due to disuse. Even if the treatment were available today, he'd still have to learn how to talk. He might even need knee-replacement surgery before he could start learning to walk.
At least he'd be able to feed himself, though.
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Muscles are attractive, but these days muscles aren't more likely to increase the survival of your children, so how long might it take until they're no longer found attractive? You could argue that they might even be an unnecessary waste of resources, so might their attractiveness diminish?
/. jokes..)
(Cue the
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coochee-coo - please don't squeeze my hand into mashed pulp.
Reminds me of the movie Unbreakable.
09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63
Here. This is old news. There are even myostatin blockers sold as "dietary supplements".
"In 1996 he proved its importance by showing that mice without the myostatin-producing gene got twice as big."
..until this kind of gene therapy is available on the black market or to the general public? Maybe the Olympics will have to start doing genetic tests for enhanced performance genes. Kinda weird to think of it that way.
Blerg.
amazing!
:P
Bonus to whoever figures out what I am referencing
Monstar L
I have an offshoot of muscular dystrophy. Any progress towards a cure brings me that much closer to being able to perform regular physical activities and... you know..not being guaranteed to die way earlier than anyone should. I've been following this possible cure since the tests in mice and I think it shows great promise. It's sad that it is already too late for many people (in fact, it may be too late for even myself before this cure is commercialized..my strength already wanes) but I'm just happy that there is a chance that others won't have to live my pain.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
The opposite of progress is congress
When he grows up, that baby might be the one who'll finally be able to take on Chuck Norris.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
FLASH: Steroid Market Craters
People have been talking about this in athletic newgroups for several years now. The scam artists are already selling "myostatin inhibition" herbs. And the real biochemists are working furiously on a product, since it will useful for various dystrophic diseases too.
His name isn't clark, is it?
Have you read my journal today?
"My baby is a kickass and he can beat yours. And you."
If a lack of myostatin, whether natural or due to some type of therapy, allows rapid muscle growth what effect does it have on your heart or your tongue? An enlarged tongue could cause all kinds of breathing and eating problems. An unusually large heart could cause any number of problems resulting in death. From the little bit of reading I have done so far none of the research data I have seen addresses these issues.
Great. Exactly what we need.
More 'miracle' foods to "solve" our 'problems.'
When will people stop trying to invent the damned golden rice and actually focus on the real problems?
Sometimes, you can, you go to hell for the rest of your life! That's a true thing.
I, for one, welcome our new XXXXX overlords
come on!
--AlexC
Just because I dont agree with climate change doesnt make me a troll
Picture of the baby: link
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
wakka wakka
Insert here some random joke about mutant superheroes.
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
I, for one, welcome our new superbaby overlord.
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
This boy is just one of countless individuals who belies the creationist refrain that mutations never observably add "information" to a genome, or positive effects. This is a particularly large effect mutation, which is not the general case for what I'm talking about, but like the family with unusually dense bones, tetrachromatism in women, immunity to LDH cholesterol toxicity, and so on, its just one more example of how there are countless changes going on in the human gene pool even in very recent history, much less on the scale necessary for evolution (which don't even really require such large leaps).
Positive, of course, is in the eye of the beholder and the environment and the tradeoffs involved. But how can you argue that information hasn't been added?
My superbaby beat up your honor student.
It's just AH-Nold in a diaper....
:-P
The things a guy will do to get some attention...
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
You are allowed to randomly slap genes together, but you're supposed to do it using conventional IVF or sex, not recombinant technology.
That baby *was* Chuck Norris!
If there's one thing I won't stand for, it's intolerance.
While I don't forsee a http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/ Gattaca type scenerio arising from all of this genetic engineering.
This video comes to mind whenever I hear/read about GE http://youtube.com/watch?v=EU_2-NBwmhQ
I have read some of these comments on this website and truthfully, I find them upsetting. You see, my 6 year old son has a diagnosis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Do you know what he has to look forward to in his future? Let me just tell you about some of the few. He gets to have a one on one aid in school because he won't have the strength to toilet and wipe himself. He probably will never have a relationship with a woman much less marry one and have children. He will end up needing someone to dress and feed him because he will not be able to do these things for himself. Did I tell you he stops walking typically by the age 10? Let's hope a fly doesn't land on his nose or he will ask you to swat it away for him. He won't have the arm strength to do it for himself. Oh, he'll probably wake up about 10 times every night because he won't be able to turn and reposition himself and he will need someone to do this for him. Uhhm... He will need the assistance of a respirator to help him breath and clear his airways so that pneumonia doesn't take his life quicker than when it comes knocking on his door before the age of 20. And, there is a good chance he won't be able to eat becasue he won't have the muscle control to handle this so he'll end up with a feeding tube. I could go on and on but I think the comedians on the post get my point. This is DUCHENNE MUSCUALR DYSTROPHY. Affects boys only and is a very progressive disease. My point also is...the parents that have a child with DMD pray everyday for a cure, the promising research such as myostatin to help our boys keep us getting out of bed everyday. Yes, this is not a silver bullet by any means. But, we are desperate parents fighting an incurable disease that is horribly underfunded ( don't even get me on that rampage) and we are desperate for anything that might help our sons walk perhaps to the age of 11 instead of 10. This is what my son has to look forward to now. A wheel chair by the age of 10. If every little bit of good news added up for these boys, a cocktail of treatments so to speak then perhaps they could live a somewhat normal functioning life. This is the best case scenerio. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/markcarson Tina ( Mark's mom)
This reminds me of the central premise of Unbreakable... that for every degenerative disease, there can be a (much rarer) mutation which is the opposite.
When is Captain America getting it?