Recent advances being made now by scientists probably will thrust most
bodybuilding and strengthening drugs into oblivion, together with all the drug
tests and laws which have been devised in an attempt to control them. User
groups, muscle magazines, and sports controlling bodies will no longer be
agonising about how to keep sport 'clean', for they will be forced to deal
with something completely different - simplified and mass market-ready genetic
modification.
So this sounds like science fiction? Don't be so sure. In the December 22,
1998 issue of 'Proceedings of the Nat Academy of Sciences, USA', researchers
reported on the use of gene therapy to treat age-related loss of muscle. They
injected mice with an insuline-like growth factor gene transported into their
cells via a 'sanitised' virus whose disease-causing abilities had been
removed.
Since viruses have this powerful ability of inserting things wherever they
feel so inclined or are programmed to do so, this gene was able to reach
muscle stem cells and convert them into functional muscle tissue. Older mice
treated with these viral 'bullets' exhibited a 27 percent increase in the
amount of these muscle cells, compared with untreated mice.
Sure, this experiment began with mice, but how many other medical and
biological advances have started with mice and ended up with humans? I am
sure that it is not very long before 'strength' and 'hypertrophy' vruses are
going to be injected into humans - possibly first with older subjects with
clinical conditions, but that is how most anabolic-androgenic substances were
born, anyway, and athletes will be hot on their heels.
Who knows, some parents will be using these muscle-smart viruses into their
children (together with other such viruses designed to enhance neural
capabilities) to ensure that their offspring can get a headstart on the
neighbours' kids?!
The technology is now with us, a few more years of animal and human volunteer
experimentation lie ahead, and designer viruses might well be a part of daily
life!
I shudder to think about the implications for sport and especially the Olympic
movement. Quo vadis - indeed?
Dr Mel C Siff
Colorado, USA
[log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|