Muscle-Linked Gene Therapy Pumps Up Monkeys

Will gigantic genetically modified legs become the next performance enhancer for athletes?

By Stuart Fox Posted 11.12.2009 at 4:01 pm 6 Comments

It's getting much harder to cheat at sports these days. Urine tests have been re-calibrated to look for the cream and the clear, blood tests check for the presence of excessive oxygen, and you spitballers? Yeah, they're on to you, too. But a new breakthrough in gene therapy may allow athletes to skip the steroids in favor of adding muscles from the DNA up.

Something's Different About The Tour de France This Year : via NY Magazine

Writing in Science Transitional Medicine, a team of scientists from Nation Wide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, report that a new gene therapy has created both more muscle, and stronger muscle, in the legs of test monkeys. The altered gene controls expression of a protein that blocks the action of a chemical that naturally degrades muscle mass. The new genes were injected directly into the monkey's legs, and took effect locally.

Needless to say, with professional athletes showing a willingness to inject red blood cells, take copious amounts of speed, and ingest whatever their cousin just brought back from the Dominican Republic, worries have already cropped up that this breakthrough will find its way into the world of sports.

The World Anti-Doping Authority has already outlawed gene doping, but then again, steroids were also banned when superstars like Floyd Landis and A-Rod took them.

[Science Transitional Medicine, via New Scientist]

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6 Comments

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tr0n

11/12/09 at 5:17 pm

Is this related to Myostatin inhibitors? Oh, it seems it may indeed be... What's the monkey metabolism like afterwards? Do they eat like a horse?

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Bagpipes100

11/12/09 at 6:31 pm

I wonder if this works well in a low g environment. Would this be useful for long term space trips?

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maxhughey

11/12/09 at 6:31 pm

I wish the article specified the type of gene therapy, I'm betting it is a Myostatin inhibitor, I wonder how long it will be until we see legitimate products on the market. Then how long it will be until they're banned.

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chieffranky

11/12/09 at 6:55 pm

You won't see them on the market in your lifetime. Maybe if you get in a horrible accident, you'll get some prescribed to you.

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eightzero

11/13/09 at 1:41 am

Your reporting is flawed and incorrect. While Floyd Landis lost his arbitration and subsequent appeal to the CAS, he was never alleged to have taken steroids. The USADA case alleged his use of synthetic testosterone, not a steroid. USADA prevailed, but the testing used was seriously flawed. See: trustbut.blogspot.com for a detailed analysis.

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mitEj

11/13/09 at 12:07 pm

@chieffranky
They are already doing human trial on similar treatments for people with MD. There are at least 3 drug companies working on different vectors in dealing with Myostatin

@Bagpipes100

That is a great idea and if NASA's budget had not been slashed as badly as it has been I would think they should look into it. Hopefully soon they will have money for something like this.