lol.. none taken,
82 million ppl living there.. some had to be freaks
Kayode James wrote:
> Oh shoots...no offense Phil.
> (runs away...)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> *From:* gatt-admin@gatt.co.tt [mailto:gatt-admin@gatt.co.tt]*On
> Behalf Of *Kayode James
> *Sent:* Sunday, June 27, 2004 9:42 PM
> *To:* gatt@gatt.co.tt
> *Subject:* {GATT} Fear da Ubermensch...
>
>
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5278028/> Genetic mutation
> turns tot into superboy
> 4-year-old is first documented
> human case, scientists say
> A German boy, seen here at seven-months old, has a genetic
> mutation that boosts muscle growth.
>
> The Associated Press
> Updated: 12:35 p.m. ET June 24, 2004
>
> BOSTON - Somewhere in Germany is a baby Superman, born in Berlin
> with bulging arm and leg muscles. Not yet 5, he can hold
> seven-pound weights with arms extended, something many adults
> cannot do. He has muscles twice the size of other kids his age and
> half their body fat.
>
>
> DNA testing showed why: The boy has a genetic mutation that boosts
> muscle growth.
>
> The discovery, reported in Thursday’s New England Journal of
> Medicine, represents the first documented human case of such a
> mutation.
>
> Many scientists believe the find could eventually lead to drugs
> for treating people with muscular dystrophy and other
> muscle-destroying conditions. And athletes would almost surely
> want to get their hands on such a drug and use it like steroids to
> bulk up.
>
> The boy’s mutant DNA segment was found to block production of a
> protein called myostatin that limits muscle growth. The news comes
> seven years after researchers at Johns Hopkins University in
> Baltimore created buff “mighty mice” by “turning off” the gene
> that directs cells to produce myostatin.
>
>
> “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.
>
> **Slow wasting process**
> 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.
>
> **Eventual health problems?**
> 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.
>
> //© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
> may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.//
>
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