Myostatin Therapies On The Way

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Do you want to live a longer life in good health? Simple practices can make some difference, such as exercise or calorie restriction. But over the long haul all that really matters is progress in medicine: building new classes of therapy to repair and reverse the known root causes of aging. The sooner these treatments arrive, the more lives will be saved. Find out how to help »

The New Scientist reports that "two treatments that block a protein called myostatin, which slows muscle growth, are now in the pipeline." You may recall the initial work on muscular mice that pointed the way to the biochemical mechanisms controlling muscle growth. Myostatin therapies have the potential to address age-related muscle loss as well as wasting diseases. "The first approach, announced this week, aims to use a drug to mop up myostatin. Meanwhile a second method, which is already in clinical trials in people with muscular dystrophy, uses antibodies to disable the protein. ... The company hopes to have initial results by late 2006."

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18825294.400