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Myostatin exon skipping promising for a range of muscle cond
Hi all,
Our researchers at Royal Holloway have published the results of some research looking at a new way to inhibit myostatin – a protein which prevents muscles growing bigger and stronger.
We have previously reported on other ways of inhibiting myostatin – a drug called ACE-031 and gene therapy using a virus. This approach is getting quite a lot of attention at the moment. It may be very useful to boost the muscle growth in combination with other treatments which address the genetic defect.
Kristina.
Re: Myostatin exon skipping promising for a range of muscleHow can one become a ‘guinea pig’ for these trials?
Re: Myostatin exon skipping promising for a range of muscleHi Alison,
The work done by George Dickson in London is still at the very early stages and won’t reach the clinical trial stage for some time. The ACE-031 trial is taking place in Canada, you can read about it here:
http://www.muscular-dystrophy.org/research/clinical_trials/234/duchenne%252Bmuscular%252Bdystrophy
The follistatin gene therapy trial hasn’t started yet but it will be in the US.
In general, to get involved in trials you need to register your interest in taking part in trials with your doctor and remind him or her regularly.
It is also important to join national registries if they are available for your condition. The two main registries currently available in the UK are for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy. Other ones are currently being developed for FSH, myotonic dystrophy and some congenital muscular dystrophies. Patients or their parents can fill out an online form to register. For other rarer neuromuscular conditions, registries are in development or are run by clinicians in other countries. You may be able to register with these registries but you might need your doctor to help with this. Links and contact details for all of the registries can be accessed via the TREAT-NMD website:
http://www.treat-nmd.eu/patients/patient-registries/global-registries/Finally, you can also directly contact the centre involved in the clinical study and they will be able to advise you of next steps.
I hope this helps.
Kristina.
Re: Myostatin exon skipping promising for a range of muscleThe Royal Holloway now have a news story on their website, it went up last week. I believe there’s also a story in the Daily Express today, but not sure if there is a web link.
Re: Myostatin exon skipping promising for a range of muscleThis seems like incredible research you guys are carrying out. Great job on being able to prove the proof of concept. I recently came across Myostatin and have seen pictures of the Belgian bulls and the mice. It seems almost to be a super power. Have you heard of Liam Hoekstra? There is a video on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEhzoCOqZJ8 and its pretty incredible. This child could life 3kg dumbells straight out to his sides at the age of 3!
I also pretty interested in these clinical trials, anyway to follow the progress? I have a range of articles on Myostatin on my blog http://www.dranabolics.com/myostatin-articles/. From my research it seemed that human trials are years away so its awesome to stumble across this article. Great job guys!
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