Gene therapy could build superathletes, scientist warns

AP ^ | 2/16/2004 | Paul Recer, Associated Press

[endthematrix]

Gene injections in rats can double muscle strength and speed, researchers have found, raising concerns that the virtually undetectable technology could be used illegally to build super athletes. A University of Pennsylvania researcher seeking ways to treat illness said that studies in rats show that muscle mass, strength and endurance can be increased by injections of a gene-manipulated virus that goes to muscle tissue and causes a rapid growth of cells.

[endthematrix]

PING

Sorry...the link goes to USATODAY.COM

[Prime Choice]

Forget worrying about "super athletes." Try worrying more about "super soldiers."

[spetznaz]

Hey, i am originally from Kenya ...hence i guess i can consider myself a 'super athlete,' and anyways running the Boston marathon feels as if i am wearing rollerblades (actually more like i'm riding a motorized scooter).

LOL

[tallhappy]

Unlike performance-enhancing drugs, Sweeney said the gene therapy could not be detected by blood or urine tests. He said it would require a biopsy of specific muscles followed by a sophisticated DNA laboratory study to detect the use of gene therapy in an athlete.

This simply means poking a needle in a muscle and getting a very tiny amount of flesh.

The test would be easy (sophisticated, sure, but easy) and incredibly clear cut. No false positives or false negatives.

[backhoe]

Funny, in an ironic sort of way... somewhere among my pile of 1986-era floppies is an outline and trial chapter of a book/short story I worked on but never got very far into developing- titled "Maxxer," about a man genetically altered via viruses into a superman.

[.577 Tyrannosaur]

I wouldn't worry. Steroids have been around for decades. They're cheap, easy to use, can be maufactured in tremendous quantities, effective even in small doses, and the vast majority are actually quite safe. To my knowledge, though, no major army (besides that of the Nazis) has touched them... This is probably because hand-to-hand combat, one of the very few situations in modern combat where raw physical strength can grant a decisive advantage, hasn't been seen since before the Korean war -- and even then such combat was very limited... As most any GI who served in Vietnam can tell you, and as Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall wrote in the May/June 1967 issue of Infantry, the bayonet was never used for fighting on the end of a rifle in Vietnam.

I would think, therefore, that the very few negative side-effects of steroids (not to mention the great cost and potential side-effects of IGF-1 gene-therapy) would far outweigh their benefits for the modern soldier. Nobody wants to be a bigger target... And besides, how much strength do you need to aim an aluminum-and-plastic rifle and pull the trigger?

[Rain-maker]

..how much strength do you need to aim an aluminum-and-plastic rifle and pull the trigger?

The strength to march miles and miles with an 85 pound pack through rugged terrain with enough ammo.

Gene splicing will boost night vision, nervous system reponse, circulatory fatigue recovery, increase stamina, dexterity and provide immunity to bio-agents. So who exactly is going to win against a super army that never sleeps and eats dirt?

It's just a matter of time before man alters his dna to fit the ecosysytem and these future rulers will be made upon the battlefield.

[endthematrix]

WRONG. DARPA has programs improving human performance. Strength is one the attributes in the model. Don't thing that world militaries aren't looking at how to have infantry carry more faster and longer. Humans are weak link in the techno driven battlefield. Saving Pvt. Ryan ... From Pain

[endthematrix]

I guess you beat me to it. Reminds me of those Somalis chewing Kaht to boost performance, while the US spends billions for similar effects. Some of the brain/machine interface programs have the most chilling applications. Watch this one!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Does this mean that future pro athletes will be able to commit twice as many crimes as they do now?

[.577 Tyrannosaur]

You're probably right regarding the effects of gene-splicing... but the IGF-1 treatment mentioned in the article will not and cannot accomplish those things -- and it probably won't increase muscular endurance, either. IGF-1 overexpression can induce hyperplasia and skeletal muscle hypertrophy only by activating the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt pathway... which tends to create type-II (high-strength, low-endurance) muscle fiber cells, and not the type-I muscle fibers that infantrymen would need on long marches... And in any case, IGF-1 has been implicated in tumor formation, so steroids may prove safer... (Besides, steroids cause, for the most part, "genuine" sarcomere hypertrophy, which, not causing fiber type specification, may prove more helpful to soldiers on long marches. Not to mention their mental effects...)

(See: 'Overexpression of insulin-like growth factor-1 induces hyperplasia, dermal abnormalities, and spontaneous tumor formation in transgenic mice'. Oncogene. 1997 Apr 10;14(14):1725-34.; Molecular mechanisms modulating muscle mass. 12928036; Contraction regulation of Akt in rat skeletal muscle. J Biol Chem. 2002 Apr 5;277(14):11910-7. Epub 2002 Jan 23.)

[eno_]

Forget worrying about "super athletes." Try worrying more about "super soldiers."

The really interesting question is whether is therapy will be withheld from old people. I'd love to get my muscles recharged whem I'm 90 something. But doctors are already quite ghoulish about what treatment old people are supposed to get.

[FierceDraka]

LUDDITES!!!

Personally, I would LOVE to have those enhancement treatments, if and when they become available. I see no problem with being able to enhance strength, speed, reflexes, sensory acuity, resistance to disease, and even cognitive ability.

And all their hand-wringing about the "sanctity" of "sports" is pure BS. If we can't use our technology to improve ourselves, then what's the point of even doing the research, anyway?

Here's my take on their point of view: Having genetically enhanced people around would violate their sacrosanct socialist-egalitarian ideals. Nothing more, nothing less.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Look for allegations of this when Barry Bonds' son hits 150 home runs in a major league season in 2020.

[tallhappy]

So who exactly is going to win against a super army that never sleeps and eats dirt?

The side that has the robot martians.

I can't believe you pverlooked that.

[KC Burke]

TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy

As a favor to some of us that follow sidebars, would you please be more limited in the topics that a story is posted to in the sidebars? This isn't "Government", and it certainly isn't Philosophy. It would also seem to me that Extended News and News/Current Events are mutually exclusive.

Thanks.