madkins
Registered
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What the public criticises in you, cultivate. It is you.
Jean Cocteau(1889-1963)
sciam.com
Gene Doping: Natural Advantage
By H. Lee Sweeney
EERO MÃƒÔ ’Ô� ’Ãâ┚¬ ’ÃƒÔ ’â┚¬�Ôš ’"ÃƒÔ ’â┚¬¦ÃƒÆ’ƒâ┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¾NTYRANTA won two Olympic gold medals in 1964. Years later scientists found the source of the Finnish cross-country skier's endurance. A genetic mutation gave his family higher than normal levels of oxygen-carrying red blood cells--higher even than could be achieved with Epo.
As this article went to press, the New England Journal of Medicine was about to release the first documented description of a human being with a genetic mutation that wipes out myostatin production. Such cases have been discussed in s
ientific circles but never published because the subjects and their families usually do not wish to risk being identified. At least one of those families is rumored to include a European weight-lifting cham
pion, which, if true, would not be su
rprising, given the tremendous advantage in muscle building and strength that a natural myostatin-suppressing mutation would confer.
But would it constitute an unfair advantage in an athlete, and would it justify other competitors using myostatin-inhibiting drugs or gene therapy simply to level the playing field? These questions are bound to be raised in continuing debate over the possibility of athletes using new muscle therapies to enhance their performance.
Natural "mutants" among athletes have been documented, among them an Olympic gold medalist. Finnish cross-country skier Eero MÃԚ Ô�šÃ”š¤ntyranta won two gold medals in the 1964 Winter Olympics. But it was not until decades later that Finnish scientists identified a genetic mutation in MÃԚ Ô�šÃ”š¤ntyranta'
s entire family that causes an excessive response to erythropoietin, leading to extraordinarily high numbers of oxygen-carrying red blood cells. Several of his family members, it turns out, were als
o ch
ampion endurance athletes.
In addition to
mutations with dramatic effects, investigators have also begun to discover natural gene variants that more subtly favor certain kinds of athletic activity. For example, last year Australian researchers examined a gene called ACTN3 in a group of male and female elite sprinters. Nearly 20 percent of people lack a functional version of this gene that gives rise to a protein specific to fast muscle fibers, although a less effective protein normally compensates for its absence. The scientists found an unusually high frequency of the working ACTN3 gene in the sprinters, however. In particular, more of the female sprinters had two copies of the gene than would be expected in a randomly selected group.
Many research groups are trying to identify other gene vari
ants that give athletes an edge by maximizing oxygen uptake, heart efficiency, power output, endurance or other traits. More than 90 genes or chromosomal locations have been associated with
athletic
performance so far, and this research is alrea
dy provoking its own ethical controversies. Critics fear that based on their genetic makeup, children will be recruited into certain sports or, if they lack the right gene mix, denied a chance to advance to the elite level of sports training. Even selective breeding for superathletes has been predicted.
A more certain result of scanning athletes' genomes will be the discovery that some of them, like MÃԚ Ô�šÃ”š¤ntyranta's, contain true genetic mutations that amount to genetic enhancement. Such revelations will add still more complexity to ethical arguments over the prospect of gene doping in sports.
Skara Brae,
madkins
What the public criticises in you, cultivate. It is you.
Jean Cocteau(1889-1963)
sciam.com
Gene Doping: Natural Advantage
By H. Lee Sweeney
EERO MÃƒÔ ’Ô� ’Ãâ┚¬ ’ÃƒÔ ’â┚¬�Ôš ’"ÃƒÔ ’â┚¬¦ÃƒÆ’ƒâ┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¾NTYRANTA won two Olympic gold medals in 1964. Years later scientists found the source of the Finnish cross-country skier's endurance. A genetic mutation gave his family higher than normal levels of oxygen-carrying red blood cells--higher even than could be achieved with Epo.
As this article went to press, the New England Journal of Medicine was about to release the first documented description of a human being with a genetic mutation that wipes out myostatin production. Such cases have been discussed in s
ientific circles but never published because the subjects and their families usually do not wish to risk being identified. At least one of those families is rumored to include a European weight-lifting cham
pion, which, if true, would not be su
rprising, given the tremendous advantage in muscle building and strength that a natural myostatin-suppressing mutation would confer.
But would it constitute an unfair advantage in an athlete, and would it justify other competitors using myostatin-inhibiting drugs or gene therapy simply to level the playing field? These questions are bound to be raised in continuing debate over the possibility of athletes using new muscle therapies to enhance their performance.
Natural "mutants" among athletes have been documented, among them an Olympic gold medalist. Finnish cross-country skier Eero MÃԚ Ô�šÃ”š¤ntyranta won two gold medals in the 1964 Winter Olympics. But it was not until decades later that Finnish scientists identified a genetic mutation in MÃԚ Ô�šÃ”š¤ntyranta'
s entire family that causes an excessive response to erythropoietin, leading to extraordinarily high numbers of oxygen-carrying red blood cells. Several of his family members, it turns out, were als
o ch
ampion endurance athletes.
In addition to
mutations with dramatic effects, investigators have also begun to discover natural gene variants that more subtly favor certain kinds of athletic activity. For example, last year Australian researchers examined a gene called ACTN3 in a group of male and female elite sprinters. Nearly 20 percent of people lack a functional version of this gene that gives rise to a protein specific to fast muscle fibers, although a less effective protein normally compensates for its absence. The scientists found an unusually high frequency of the working ACTN3 gene in the sprinters, however. In particular, more of the female sprinters had two copies of the gene than would be expected in a randomly selected group.
Many research groups are trying to identify other gene vari
ants that give athletes an edge by maximizing oxygen uptake, heart efficiency, power output, endurance or other traits. More than 90 genes or chromosomal locations have been associated with
athletic
performance so far, and this research is alrea
dy provoking its own ethical controversies. Critics fear that based on their genetic makeup, children will be recruited into certain sports or, if they lack the right gene mix, denied a chance to advance to the elite level of sports training. Even selective breeding for superathletes has been predicted.
A more certain result of scanning athletes' genomes will be the discovery that some of them, like MÃԚ Ô�šÃ”š¤ntyranta's, contain true genetic mutations that amount to genetic enhancement. Such revelations will add still more complexity to ethical arguments over the prospect of gene doping in sports.
Skara Brae,
madkins