154 results about "Myostatin" patented technology

The present invention provides a substantially purified growth differentiation factor (GDF) receptor, including a GDF-8 (myostatin) receptor, as well as functional peptide portions thereof. In addition, the invention provides a virtual representation of a GDF receptor or a functional peptide portion thereof. The present invention also provides a method of modulating an effect of myostatin on a cell by contacting the cell with an agent that affects myostatin signal transduction in the cell. In addition, the invention provides a method of ameliorating the severity of a pathologic condition, which is characterized, at least in part, by an abnormal amount, development or metabolic activity of muscle or adipose tissue in a subject, by modulating myostatin signal transduction in a muscle cell or an adipose tissue cell in the subject. The invention also provides a method of modulating the growth of muscle tissue or adipose tissue in a eukaryotic organism by administering an agent that affects myostatin signal transduction to the organism.

The present invention provides novel activin IIB5 receptor polypeptides capable of binding and inhibiting the activities of activin A, myostatin, or GDF-11. The present invention also provides polynucleotides, vectors and host cells capable of producing the receptor polypeptides. Compositions and methods for treating muscle-wasting, metabolic and other disorders are also provided.

Anti-myostatin antibodies are identified that are characterized as having high affinity and may be chimeric, humanized or fully human antibodies, immunoconjugates of the antibodies or antigen-binding fragments thereof. The antibodies of the invention are useful for increasing muscle mass, increasing bone density, or for the treatment of various disorders in mammalian and avian species.

In certain aspects, the present invention provides compositions and methods for treating fatty liver disease by administering an antagonist of an ActRIIB signaling pathway. Examples of such antagonists include ActRIIB polypeptides, anti-ActRIIB antibodies, anti-myostatin antibodies, anti-GDF3 antibodies and anti-activin A or B antibodies. A variety of hepatic and metabolic disorders may be improved by treating fatty liver disease.

There are disclosed selective myostatin antagonists (including antibodies), nucleic acids encoding them, and methods of making and using them. Neutralizing antibodies recognizing the conformational epitope near position 21 to 31 and position 50 to 60.

A method and compound for treating skeletal muscle mass deficiency in a human subject are disclosed. The composition is an oligomer of morpholino subunits and phosphorus-containing intersubunit linkages joining a morpholino nitrogen of one subunit to a 5′ exocyclic carbon of an adjacent subunit, contains between 10-40 nucleotide bases, has a base sequence effective to hybridize to an expression-sensitive region of processed or preprocessed human myostatin RNA transcript, identified, in its processed form, by SEQ ID NO:6, and is capable of uptake by target muscle cells in the subject. In practicing the method, the compound is administered in an amount and at a dosage schedule to produce an overall reduction in the level of serum myostatin measured in the patient, and preferably to bring the myostatin level within the a range determined for normal, healthy individuals.

A method to alter the phenotype of animals, e.g., avians, which employs passive and active immunization is provided.

The present invention provides variant activin IIB soluble receptor polypeptides and proteins capable of binding and inhibiting the activities of activin A, myostatin, or GDF-11. The present invention also provides polynucleotides, vectors and host cells capable of producing the variant polypeptides and proteins. Compositions and methods for treating muscle-wasting and other diseases and disorders are also provided.

A neutralizing epitope is identified within amino acids 40-64 of the mature form of human myostatin. Antibodies that bind this epitope fall within the scope of the invention and may be murine, chimeric, or humanized antibodies, immunoconjugates of the antibodies or antigen-binding fragments thereof. The antibodies of the invention are useful for increasing muscle mass, increasing bone density, or for the treatment of various disorders in mammals.

It has been determined that metalloprotease cleavage of a myostatin pro peptide results in activation of a latent inactive myostatin to an active form. Accordingly, methods of identifying agents that modulate metalloprotease mediated activation of myostatin are provided, as are agents identified using such methods. Also provided are methods of modulating muscle growth in an organism by increasing or decreasing metalloprotease mediated cleavage of a myostatin pro peptide.

The invention discloses a method for knocking out MSTN (myostatin) genes in a targeted manner by utilizing CRISPR-Cas9. According to the method, multiple species are subjected to homology comparison, two pairs of MSTN gene target sequences are selected, two pairs of DNA double strands which have the sequences different from the target sequences, the same expression protein and the same BsmBi sticky ends are synthesized according to the design principle of PAM of gRNA, the double strands are connected with pPDNA330 plasmids, a recombinant vector carrying MSTN homologous genes of multiple species is obtained and is used for detecting the gene knockout efficiency with a fluorescent protein expression method, carrier-transfected receptor cells, having higher knockout efficiency, of multiple species are selected, gene knockout and verification are performed, and simple, efficient and accurate gene knockout on the MSTN genes of the multiple species is completed.

A neutralizing epitope is identified within amino acids 40-64 of the mature form of human myostatin. Antibodies that bind this epitope with high affinity preferentially bind GDF-8 over GDF-11 and may be chimeric, humanized or fully human antibodies, immunoconjugates of the antibodies or antigen-binding fragments thereof. The antibodies of the invention are useful for increasing muscle mass, increasing bone density, or for the treatment of various disorders in mammalian and avian species.

Methods for detecting allelic variants of the myostatin (growth and differentiation factor-8) gene are provided. Specifically provided are methods of identifying subjects having or having a predisposition for increased muscle mass as compared to subjects having wild-type myostatin. Increased muscle mass is particularly desirable for identification of animals used to produce food products, including bovine, porcine, ovine, avian and piscine species.

The methods and compositions of this invention provide a means of regenerating injured musculoskeletal tissue by inhibition of myostatin function. The invention provides methods of treating a nonunion fracture in an individual comprising delivering to the fracture via a delivery system comprising biodegradable hydrogel, a pharmacological amount of myostatin propeptide effective to inhibit myostatin function. The invention also teaches compositions useful for the treatment of non-union fracture in an individual, said compositions comprising a pharmacological amount of myostatin propeptide effective to inhibit myostatin function; and a delivery system for delivering said myostatin propeptide to said fracture, wherein the delivery system comprises a biodegradable hydrogel or biodegradable nanobeads.

A method and compound for treating skeletal muscle mass deficiency in a human subject are disclosed. The composition is an oligomer of morpholino subunits and phosphorus-containing intersubunit linkages joining a morpholino nitrogen of one subunit to a 5′ exocyclic carbon of an adjacent subunit, contains between 10-40 nucleotide bases, has a base sequence effective to hybridize to an expression-sensitive region of processed or preprocessed human myostatin RNA transcript, identified, in its processed form, by SEQ ID NO:6, and is capable of uptake by target muscle cells in the subject. In practicing the method, the compound is administered in an amount and at a dosage schedule to produce an overall reduction in the level of serum myostatin measured in the patient, and preferably to bring the myostatin level within the a range determined for normal, healthy individuals.

The present invention relates to fibronectin-based scaffold domain proteins that bind to myostatin. The invention also relates to the use of these proteins in therapeutic applications to treat muscular dystrophy, cachexia, sarcopenia, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, COPD, chronic kidney disease, heart failure, myocardial infarction, and fibrosis. The invention further relates to cells comprising such proteins, polynucleotides encoding such proteins or fragments thereof, and to vectors comprising the polynucleotides encoding the proteins.

The invention relates to methods and materials for enhancing muscle mass or for the treatment of muscle disease in a subject, comprising introducing a cell which has a lower than normal level of myostatin signalling, into the subject.

Disclosed are novel methods for increasing muscle mass by means of immunization against Growth Differentiation Factor 8 (GDF-8, myostatin). Immunization is preferably effected by administration of analogues of GDF-8 which are capable of inducing antibody production against homologous GDF-8. Especially preferred as an immunogen is homologous GDF-8 which has been modified by introduction of one single or a few foreign, immunodominant and promiscuous T-cell epitopes while substantially preserving the tertiary structure of the homologous GDF-8. Also disclosed are nucleic acid vaccination against GDF-8 and vaccination using live vaccines as well as methods and means useful for the vaccination. Such methods and means include methods for identification of useful immunogenic GDF-8 analogues, methods for the preparation of analogues and pharmaceutical formulations, as well as nucleic acid fragments, vectors, transformed cells, polypeptides and pharmaceutical formulations.

Myostatin antagonists, including myostatin binding antibodies, are disclosed. Also disclosed are nucleic acids encoding and cells including myostatin antagonists; methods of production; and methods of use.

The present invention provides variant activin IIB soluble receptor polypeptides and proteins capable of binding and inhibiting the activities of activin A, myostatin, or GDF-11. The present invention also provides polynucleotides, vectors and host cells capable of producing the variant polypeptides and proteins. Compositions and methods for treating muscle-wasting and other diseases and disorders are also provided.

The invention relates to methods and materials for enhancing muscle mass or for the treatment of muscle disease in a subject, comprising introducing a cell which has a lower than normal level of myostatin signalling, into the subject.

Certain disclosed oligomers induce exon skipping during processing of myostatin pre-mRNA. The oligomers may be in a vector or encoded by the vector. The vector is used for inducing exon skipping during processing of myostatin pre-mRNA. A therapeutically effective amount of the oligomer may be administered to a subject patient such that exon skipping during processing of myostatin pre-mRNA is induced. The administration to a subject may be used in order to increase or maintain muscle mass, or slowing degeneration of muscle mass in the subject. The administration to a subject may ameliorate muscle wasting conditions, such as muscular dystrophy. Examples of such muscular dystrophies which may be so treated include Becker's muscular dystrophy, congenital muscular dystrophy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, distal muscular dystrophy, Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, myotonic muscular dystrophy, and oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy

The invention relates to a CRISPER-Cas9-system-mediated sheep MSTN (myostatin) gene knock-out and exogenous gene site-specific integration method. The method comprises the following steps: establishing a CRISPER-Cas9-system-based gRNA (guide ribonucleic acid) expression vector according to a sheep MSTN gene sequence, establishing an exogenous-gene-containing donor plasmid capable of being integrated into a host genome according to the acting site of the gRNA, and transforming the optimized CRISPER-Cas9 vector, the gRNA expression vector and the linearized donor plasmid into sheep fibroblasts, thereby obtaining the sheep MSTN gene knock-out and exogenous gene site-specific integrated cells. The CRISPER-Cas9-mediated targeted vector provides a simple quick safe way for sheep MSTN gene knock-out and exogenous gene site-specific integration, thereby greatly enhancing the screening efficiency of the transgenic cell line. The method can screen the site-specific integrated exogenous gene cell line without adding any selection marker, thereby greatly enhancing the safety of the transgenic animals and having important value for sheep genetic breeding.

Anti-myostatin antibodies are identified that are characterized as having high affinity and may be chimeric, humanized or fully human antibodies, immunoconjugates of the antibodies or antigen-binding fragments thereof. The antibodies of the invention are useful for increasing muscle mass, increasing bone density, or for the treatment of various disorders in mammalian and avian species.

The present invention provides variant activin IIB soluble receptor polypeptides and proteins capable of binding and inhibiting the activities of activin A, myostatin, or GDF-11. The present invention also provides polynucleotides, vectors and host cells capable of producing the variant polypeptides and proteins. Compositions and methods for treating muscle-wasting and other diseases and disorders are also provided.

The present invention relates to a method of improving wound healing in a human or animal patient by inhibiting the activity of myostatin (GDF-8) using one or more myostatin antagonists. The present invention also relates to a method of treating fibrotic diseases or disorders comprising administering a myostatin antagonist.

Description of antigen binding proteins, such as antibodies, which bind to myostatin, polynucleotides encoding such antigen binding proteins, pharmaceutical compositions comprising said antigen binding proteins and methods of manufacture. Furthermore, description of the use of such antigen binding proteins in the treatment or prophylaxis of diseases associated with any one or a combination of decreased muscle mass, muscle strength and muscle function.