If it works for the monkey....

What you guys reckon about gene therapy being the next big thing

" Washington - A gene therapy treatment that stops the breakdown of muscle appeared safe in monkeys and may build up muscle, too, researchers reported on Wednesday.

The approach is being developed in the hope of treating severe muscle weakness caused by multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and neurodegenerative diseases, but progress is slow in part because of fears about its safety.

Janaiah Kota of the Centre for Gene Therapy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and colleagues used an engineered virus called an adeno-associated virus to carry a gene into the leg muscles of healthy monkeys.

The gene causes cells to produce human follistatin, which interferes with another compound called myostatin. Myostatin breaks down muscle, so in theory adding follistatin should encourage muscles to grow.

The new gene therapy went safely into the muscles of the monkeys and within three months, the monkeys' muscles were growing bigger, the researchers reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The effects lasted for at least 15 months, they said. This is important for treating lifelong diseases such as MS and muscular dystrophy."

www.news24.com/Content/SciTech/News/1132...herapy_builds_muscle

Sounds good to me but you have to worry with things like this. You have to be sure the virus integrates the gene in all the genomes of all the cells in the body. Also, what if the virus mutates and changes the base composition of the gene then you have no control of the mutated gene that is integrated. But honestly I believe gene therapy is the next big thing but we will only know for sure when its tested in humans and not animal models

I didn't say I'll go first

Um, yes you did :woohoo:

Well if I look like the Hulk, but just not green it will be okay, but I'm not keen on looking like a monkey or just some part growing and other's staying the same..... Can you imagine one big Forearm and no Bicep or one huge leg and the other one like a stick

Let's leave the test with the monkeys for now