A Shabby Pop-Sci Article on the Minicircle Trial of Follistatin Gene Therapy

Minicircle is working towards the upregulation of follistatin, an inhibitor of myostatin and thus an interesting target for improved muscle growth and treatment of sarcopenia. Follistatin and myostatin are well studied genes in this context, and there are any number of animal studies, as well as human trials of various approaches to myostatin inhibition. As I have long said, follistatin and myostatin are probably the most compelling, least risky genes to start working on if interested in gene therapy development. There is a great deal of animal and human data to support this work. It is always annoying to see shabbily written popular science articles in which ignorance is brandished with a sort of pride. The author of today's article couldn't get Minicircle to comment on the details of their work, has no real idea as to what is going on under the hood, and so forges ahead with a mix of snark and commentary from various people who also don't know what Minicircle is doing, or the nature of their gene therapy approach. I am a participant in the Minicircle follistatin trial. I've also signed a non-disclosure agreement, so don't ask me for details. The company has an interesting, novel technology for the delivery of gene therapies, and is undertaking a responsible, low-cost, first-in-human clinical trial outside the US with educated volunteer participants from the self-experimentation community. It consistently amazes me, the degree to which hostility is poured upon ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs