New method to detect EPO

2004-08-11 18:20

Paris - French scientists have discovered a new method of detecting the blood-boosting drug erythropoietine (EPO) used in so-called "genetic doping" by athletes trying to hide illegal use of performance-enhancing substances, according to new research released on Wednesday.

EPO use has bedevilled both amateur and professional endurance sports but there has been an increasingly effective anti-doping crackdown.

There are concerns that athletes could now consider bypassing injections of the banned drug - which is detectable in urine - for possible injections of the gene encoding the stimulant factor.

"In the case of EPO... it is being predicted that exogenous drug injections will be replaced by the transfer of the corresponding gene into some of the athlete's own cells," said the French National Doping Laboratories in research published in Molecular Therapy, the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy.

"The hormone thus produced inside the organism is assumed to be completely identical to the physiological one.

"Our results show that this is not the case and open up optimistic prospects for anti-doping control involving gene transfer."

Easy detection

The research showed that the protein produced from injecting genetic EPO into the muscles of monkeys resulted in easy detection.

Skeletal muscle will likely be the target tissue for genetic doping because it is easily accessible and efficiently transduced, the researchers said.

"Although other methods of gene transfer exist and may be exploited by gene doping ... our results provide encouraging evidence that doping by gene transfer will likely not go undetected when skeletal muscle is the target."

The researchers said it was "almost inevitable that athletes will exploit medical progress in an effort to elude detection by sports authorities charged with curbing doping practices."

They also warned: "Doping by gene transfer may compound adverse side effects because of direct toxic effects, persistent gene expression, or potential mutagenesis."

- SAPA