A network of research teams in Switzerland has found a tiny growth inhibitor that could determine how strong our muscles grow. By manipulation of NCoR1, a gene regulator, the team was able to control the action of selected genes. The suppression of this muscle growth inhibitor produced a line of super-mice that have muscles 2 times as strong as the muscles of ordinary meeses!
The initial research was done on mice and worms, turning them into our super-mice and some really strong worms. 
This is seen as potentially a new way to treating muscle deterioration in various disease cases including sedentary or morbidly obese people who find it difficult or impossible to exercise. And of course athletes are very interested in anything that can double muscle strength.
“There are now ways to develop drugs for people who are unable to exercise due to obesity or other health complications, such as diabetes, immobility and frailty,” says Ronald M. Evans, a professor in Salk’s Gene Expression Lab, who led the Salk team. “We can now engineer specific gene networks in muscle to give the benefits of exercise to sedentary mice.”
The molecule involved has been described as a brake being put on growth. Releasing the brake by mutation or with chemicals can reactivate gene circuits to provide more energy to muscle and enhance its activity.
The researchers published the results in an article in the Cell, a scientific journal. They reported that the experiments were done on worms and mice at the same time and that the mice grew to become genuine marathoners. The mice were reportedly capable of running for longer periods and at a faster clip before they exhibited any signs of tiring. What’s amazing is that these mice were able to traverse nearly twice the distance of the control mice that had not received this treatment.
Earlier experiments had targeted the acceleration of certain genes instead of blocking their growth inhibitors, the endrun on these growth inhibitors seems to result in much more desirable results.
Johan Auwerx one of the lead scientists said, “This could be used to combat muscle weakness in the elderly, which leads to falls and contributes to hospitalizations,” And. “In addition, we think that this could be used as a basis for developing a treatment for genetic muscular dystrophy.”
There was no word of when they will try this on humans but we will be watching this one closely.
