New antibody could dramatically boost strength and muscle mass in different diseases

[Waverunner]

It would be nice, if PWCs had access to this drug as well. “We need to be able to help people maintain productive and meaningful lives, and muscle function is a major part of the equation,” says Glass. “It could be the difference between independent living and having to move into a nursing home.”


https://www.asm.org/index.php/asm-n...s-of-muscle-mass-in-cancer-and-other-diseases

WASHINGTON, DC – December 18, 2013 – A new antibody could dramatically boost strength and muscle mass in patients with cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sporadic inclusion body myositis, and in elderly patients with sarcopenia according to research published ahead of print in the journalMolecular and Cellular Biology.


“Age-related loss of muscle mass is a major contributing factor to falls, broken bones, and the loss of mobility,” says co-corresponding author David Glass of Novartis, Cambridge, MA, one of the compound’s developers, along with first author Estelle Trifilieff, also of Novartis. “This study illustrates that we may have a powerful tool to prevent muscle wasting and promote growth.”



The new compound (BYM338) acts to prevent muscle wasting by blocking a receptor that engages a cellular signaling system that exists to put the brakes on muscle development when appropriate. But sometimes those brakes are activated inappropriately, or are stuck on.



“Our goal was to release the brakes,” says Glass.

A variety of signals can activate the receptor. Prior to development of BYM338, compounds developed to block these molecules were blunt instruments, either trapping all incoming signals (which stimulated muscle growth but also caused harmful side effects) or blocking just a single receptor activator (providing only tepid growth stimulation.) BYM338 was designed to be in the Goldilocks zone (just right.)



In the study the compound boosted muscle mass 25 to 50 percent and increased strength in animal models. Those gains were significantly superior to those of compounds that blocked a single receptor activator. Clinical trials are currently underway.



The conditions BYM338 is designed to treat all losses of skeletal muscle and fat, which are not reversed by simply eating more, and are known as cachexias when associated with certain chronic illnesses. Cancer cachexia develops in a majority of patients with advanced malignancy, and can interfere with the ability to undergo chemotherapy, says Glass. COPD afflicts an estimated 65 million people worldwide, and is predicted to become the third leading cause of death by 2020. As many as a quarter of COPD patients suffer from cachexia, which can worsen already dire respiratory difficulties.



Sarcopenia—age-related loss of muscle and physical function—afflicts 5-13% of 60-70 year olds, rising to 11-50% in individuals over 80 years old. These individuals become especially vulnerable to falling. Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of both fatal and non-fatal injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



Preliminary data on the antibody was promising enough to have it designated a breakthrough therapy by the US Food and Drug Administration for sporadic inclusion body myositis, a rare muscle wasting disease with no approved therapies.



“We need to be able to help people maintain productive and meaningful lives, and muscle function is a major part of the equation,” says Glass. “It could be the difference between independent living and having to move into a nursing home.”



A copy of the manuscript can be found online at http://bit.ly/asmtip1213c. The final version of the article is scheduled for the February 2014 issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

 

[heapsreal]

Adequate testosterone and growth hormone would do the same as well as hormones in general. I would bet my house on most people in nursing homes would be very low hormonally unless treated specifically.

I wonder how hormones relate to the above link?

 

[Martial]

I wonder how quick this would be abused for body building.. lol

 

[heapsreal]

[quot="Martial, post: 414702, member: 13018"]I wonder how quick this would be abused for body building.. lol[/quote]
They probably been using it for awhile truth be known.
Anabolic steroids I think could be very helpful for many illnesses but the media have scared the life out of everone including doctors. There is a doc who uses anabolics for hiv patients with great success even sees improvement in immune function with them, having cd4 counts increase etc.

 

[WillowJ]

Anabolic steroids I think could be very helpful for many illnesses but the media have scared the life out of everone including doctors. There is a doc who uses anabolics for hiv patients with great success even sees improvement in immune function with them, having cd4 counts increase etc.

I was wondering why no one offered that to me for scary-level underweight.

 

[alex3619]

I wonder how quick this would be abused for body building.. lol

How do you know this is not already happening? The only good thing here is this is a biological, antibodies are very hard for backyard labs to cook up.

 

[MeSci]

It would be nice, if PWCs had access to this drug as well. “We need to be able to help people maintain productive and meaningful lives, and muscle function is a major part of the equation,” says Glass. “It could be the difference between independent living and having to move into a nursing home.”


https://www.asm.org/index.php/asm-n...s-of-muscle-mass-in-cancer-and-other-diseases

WASHINGTON, DC – December 18, 2013 – A new antibody could dramatically boost strength and muscle mass in patients with cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sporadic inclusion body myositis, and in elderly patients with sarcopenia according to research published ahead of print in the journalMolecular and Cellular Biology.

The main thing people with ME need, and most have failed to attain, is improved energy production in the mitochondria. We don't all have loss of muscle mass. Mine had become enveloped in fat, which was the main hindrance to using them. My leaky-gut diet and supplements have melted away the fat and increased the muscle mass, so that in many ways I am in as good shape as I was in my 20s (and I am 60!). But the mitochondria still don't work properly; I just have more and better muscle structurally, and can use it more effectively.

Medicinal antibodies are very powerful and potentially very dangerous. You may recall a serious incident in a UK clinical trial that used one. A high proportion of new drugs of any kind are withdrawn due to inefficacy or adverse effects.

Animal models are also very poor predictors of effects in humans.

I wouldn't touch this with a bargepole.

 

[xchocoholic]

Would there be tests available to see who would benefit from this ?

 

[lansbergen]

I wouldn't touch this with a bargepole.

me too

 

[heapsreal]

How do you know this is not already happening? The only good thing here is this is a biological, antibodies are very hard for backyard labs to cook up.

Top bodybuilders dont get their drugs cooked up In backyards they get it from the best pharmacys and scientists around. Thats how scientists experiment and when they work out the safe doses they use that for general public. And bodybuilders do all this voluntary. Also the right doses are given to olympic gold medal winners.

We could bring up the lance armstrong thing too. I bet he could improve the function of cfs/me people. He would have had top researchers looking after him like most other athletes in multimillion dollar industries in sport. Alot of money in sport so there will be alot of money in research and drug development for them. Cfs/me we are just an expense to society.

 

[xchocoholic]

Boosting the performance of a healthy athlete isn't the same as it would be for us tho. I can boost my energy via caffeine pills, hydrocodone, mb12 injections, etc but pem is always a consequence. I can push for several days or weeks too but then crash to the point where no amount of supplements, etc work. It would be great if they would look at this for us.

I'm interested in this now because I just moved and I didn't gain any muscles. The last time I moved, 2 1/2 years ago, I did.
There are several possibilities including I stopped eating red meat about a year ago.

 

[Waverunner]

The main thing people with ME need, and most have failed to attain, is improved energy production in the mitochondria. We don't all have loss of muscle mass. Mine had become enveloped in fat, which was the main hindrance to using them. My leaky-gut diet and supplements have melted away the fat and increased the muscle mass, so that in many ways I am in as good shape as I was in my 20s (and I am 60!). But the mitochondria still don't work properly; I just have more and better muscle structurally, and can use it more effectively.

Medicinal antibodies are very powerful and potentially very dangerous. You may recall a serious incident in a UK clinical trial that used one. A high proportion of new drugs of any kind are withdrawn due to inefficacy or adverse effects.

Animal models are also very poor predictors of effects in humans.

I wouldn't touch this with a bargepole.

I agree with the first part. I don't think, that muscle growth is the main problem of PWCs, however I do think, that there are certain PWCs, where this drug can become very handy, especially those who are bed bound and suffer from muscle wasting. Who knows, where your health is in 5 to 10 years. In addition to this, it doesn't look like we are drowning in a pool of new and helpful drugs, so ranting about new antibodies doesn't seem very justified, especially when they haven't been put to trial.

TGN1412 caused horrible effects but millions of people are on other monoclonal antibodies right now and they don't come down with organ failure. So claiming, that antibodies are potentially dangerous is like saying, that driving a car is dangerous. If you want to avoid all risk, don't drive a car and don't go outside. If you don't want to take a drug, that's completely fine. However, don't complain when you notice, that your health is deteriorating fast and that treatment choices are very limited. Patients don't take these drugs for fun but because they have a health problem.

While it is true, that less and less drugs reach the market, it should be noted, that we have a testing system, which is from the last century and doesn't take into account the heterogeneity of humans and helps tremendously to inhibit innovation, as well as new market entries into the pharma field.

 

[heapsreal]

I think in us muscle wasting occurs because of inactivity. Give us our energy back without pem our muscles will rebuild to where they should be. If we dont have the energy than bigger muscles will fatigue us further as they require more energy.

Without stating a cause of cfs etc what we need is energy to get going and the ability to recover from activity. What prevents all this, buggered if I know lol. But I think anabolics could play a big part in increasing recovery and reducing pem.

 

[lansbergen]

However, don't complain when you notice, that your health is deteriorating fast and that treatment choices are very limited.

Did I ever????

 

[Snow Leopard]

I wonder how quick this would be abused for body building.. lol

They're probably using it right now.

Bit hard to claim to have a muscle wasting disease when you look like a bodybuilder though.

 

[lansbergen]

Bit hard to claim to have a muscle wasting disease when you look like a bodybuilder though.

 

[MeSci]

I agree with the first part. I don't think, that muscle growth is the main problem of PWCs, however I do think, that there are certain PWCs, where this drug can become very handy, especially those who are bed bound and suffer from muscle wasting. Who knows, where your health is in 5 to 10 years. In addition to this, it doesn't look like we are drowning in a pool of new and helpful drugs, so ranting about new antibodies doesn't seem very justified, especially when they haven't been put to trial.

TGN1412 caused horrible effects but millions of people are on other monoclonal antibodies right now and they don't come down with organ failure. So claiming, that antibodies are potentially dangerous is like saying, that driving a car is dangerous. If you want to avoid all risk, don't drive a car and don't go outside. If you don't want to take a drug, that's completely fine. However, don't complain when you notice, that your health is deteriorating fast and that treatment choices are very limited. Patients don't take these drugs for fun but because they have a health problem.

While it is true, that less and less drugs reach the market, it should be noted, that we have a testing system, which is from the last century and doesn't take into account the heterogeneity of humans and helps tremendously to inhibit innovation, as well as new market entries into the pharma field.

If you are accusing me of ranting, I refute this absolutely. I was simply pointing out reasons for being extremely cautious. I am all-too-aware of how desperate people can be for treatment, and how this can lead to excessive haste to try new treatments.

There is a review of adverse effects from monoclonal antibodies used for cancer here.

I agree that our drug development system is antiquated. I have been arguing exactly this for many years in both unpaid campaigning and paid freelance scientific research.

 

[Waverunner]

If you are accusing me of ranting, I refute this absolutely. I was simply pointing out reasons for being extremely cautious. I am all-too-aware of how desperate people can be for treatment, and how this can lead to excessive haste to try new treatments.

There is a review of adverse effects from monoclonal antibodies used for cancer here.

I agree that our drug development system is antiquated. I have been arguing exactly this for many years in both unpaid campaigning and paid freelance scientific research.

I apologize then. I know about the side effects of monoclonal antibodies and most patients seem to be stuck with very sub-optimal drugs. My biggest fear is therefore, that nothing changes. Unfortunately, this is exactly how things look, so patients might be forced to take what is left.

 

[Waverunner]

Did I ever????

I complain constantly but only because I know what a mess the drug development field is. Therefore I'm thankful for every new drug, that gets developed.

 

[helios]

I wonder how quick this would be abused for body building.. lol

It is hard to say if it has abuse potential (that's abuse from the medical establishment perspective, not from the althletic perspective). The compound...acts to prevent muscle wasting by blocking a receptor that engages a cellular signaling system that exists to put the brakes on muscle development when appropriate. But sometimes those brakes are activated inappropriately, or are stuck on.

Body builders don't have retarded muscle growth, in fact they tend to be the total opposite due to good health, hours spent in the gym, high calorie diet, and growth promoting supplements and steroids/GH/peptides. Personally from the above statement I think it would not be a smash hit in the athletic/BB community. If the drug turned off say myostatin which would enable them to develop muscle tissue above normal then that is what would take the market. The thing is though it still may be a great product for many in the community who don't do BB, as it may promote muscle development without having to spend hours pumping iron.

I think a compound such as this would be good for many of us, but maybe not necessarily all. Especially those of us in a catabolic state. As part of my heath condition I have been very underweight even though I was working out at the gym and eating more than enough. I would be a great candidate for a compound like this I would suspect. As HR said there is also hormones as well. If a CFS person was also low in DHEA/GH/Test then those aspects may hamper muscle development more so than this compound can compensate.
I am low in GH/IGF. I tried GH injections for 4 months and definitely felt a sense of improved wellbeing, but cant say it was amazing to my health, though I was not on it for long enough ideally and was taking low dose (because of cost). I am on TRT. Testosterone does help me a bit in this regard, much more so strength and muscle tone, rather then muscle development & weight gain though. Nandrolone/Boldenone which are anabolic as opposed to androgenic (like Testosterone), I felt so much better on...both physical & mental well being and weight gain from improvement in appetite (when I was able to try them). DHEA was a disappointment to me even though I show up quite low in blood tests.