Patent ID: 8071538

Claim:
A method of increasing lean muscle mass in a subject comprising administering a pharmaceutical composition to the subject, wherein the pharmaceutical composition comprises a therapeutically effective amount of a myostatin binding agent wherein the myostatin binding agent has the structure: (X 1 ) a â€”F 1 â€”(X 2 ) b , or multimers thereof; wherein F 1 is a vehicle; and X 1 and X 2 are each independently selected from -(L 1 ) c -P 1 ; -(L 1 ) c -P 1 -(L 2 ) d -P 2 ; -(L 1 ) c -P 1 -(L 2 ) d -P 2 -(L 3 ) e -P 3 ; and -(L 1 ) c -P 1 -(L 2 ) d -P 2 -(L 3 ) e -P 3 -(L 4 ) f -P 4 ; wherein P 1 , P 2 , P 3 , and P 4 are peptides capable of binding myostatin, wherein L 1 , L 2 , L 3 , and L 4 are each linkers; and a, b, c, d, e, and f are each independently 0 or 1, provided that at least one of a and b is 1, and wherein one or more of the peptides capable of binding myostatin comprise the amino acid sequence Cb 1 b 2 Wb 3 WMCPP (SEQ ID NO: 353), wherein b 1 is selected from any one of the amino acids T, I, or R; b 2 is selected from any one of R, S, Q; b 3 is selected from any one of P, R and Q, and wherein the peptide is between 10 and 50 amino acids in length, and physiologically acceptable salts thereof.