By Daniel Bates
Last updated at 3:40 PM on 25th July 2011
It sounds like a plot from the film Captain America.
Scientists inject a subject full of growth hormones which turn him from a seven stone weakling into a six-packed superhero.
But rather than being the stuff of science-fiction, researchers now believe such a procedure could one day take place.
They think that by targeting the gene that restricts muscle growth they can remove the body's natural 'brakes' on development.
From weakling: Chris Evans stars in Captain America: The First Avenger as a scrawny man who is transformed into a muscle-bound superhero. Scientists now believe they can replicate this over a period of months with a growth hormone
To muscle-man: Scientists think that by targeting the gene that restricts muscle growth they can remove the body's natural 'brakes' on development
Within six weeks of being injected with the experimental serum, the team believe they can help an individual bulk out by a noticeable amount.
But the discovery won't be used for the next generation of super soldiers - the plan is to help patients suffering from muscle wasting conditions.
And there is no danger of it producing a legion of Arnold Schwarzeneggers as the body has its own natural limit as to how much it can grow.
The theory sounds like the 'rebirth' scene in new movie Captain America: First Avenger in which Chris Evans goes into a white casket and is turned into the superhero, complete with flashing lights and circuits fraying.
The reality, which has been put forward by biologist Brian Kaspaer from the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, would probably only involve a simple injection.
The treatment would involve using a protein called follistatin to eliminate myostatin, a gene which stops muscle growth.
Researchers said there is no danger of their serum producing a legion of Arnold Schwarzeneggers as the body has a natural limit as to how much it can grow
'If you eliminate the myostatin, you release the brakes, so to say, and muscles become bigger,' said Kaspaer.
He has taken the DNA which causes follistatin to be produced and put it inside a virus which has been stripped out except for the shell, and injected this into the muscle.
Once there the protein shuts off myostatin production and within six weeks the muscles are bigger.
Dr Kaspar and his research team are now applying to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to get approval for tests on humans.
He added however that the chance of criminals or other people abusing the drugs for their own ends was minimal.
'The idea of it getting into the hands of the general population is very hard to imagine,' he said.
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25 Jul, 2011--
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2018562/Captain-America-hormone-injection-transforms-weakling-muscle-man.html?ITO=1490
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