Doping in Sports

Blood doping represents one main trend in doping strategies. Blood doping refers to the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells (RBCs) in the bloodstream in order to enhance athletic performance, by means of blood transfusions, administration of erythropoiesis-stimulating substances, blood substitutes, natural or artificial altitude facilities, and innovative gene therapies. While detection of recombinant EPO and homologous transfusion is already feasible through electrophoretic, mass spectrometry or flow cytometry-based approaches, no method is currently available to tackle doping strategies relying on autologous transfusions. We exploited an in vitro model of autologous transfusion through a 1:10 dilution of concentrated RBCs after 30 days of storage upon appropriate dilution in freshly withdrawn RBCs from the same donor. Western blot towards membrane Prdx2 and Percoll density gradients were exploited to assess their suitability as biomarkers of transfusion. Membrane Pr...

Physicians should possess specific diagnostic and pharmacotherapeutic skills in order to recognize symptoms associated with doping use. It is important to be on the alert in athletes and fitness enthusiasts for physical and psychological changes due to use of anabolic steroids such as acne, stretch marks, gynecomastia, signs of acromegaly, irascibility and lethargy. Stimulants such as amphetamines, ephedrine and cocaine lead to fat loss and increased alertness; their main side effects are cardiac problems, behavioural changes and addiction. In addition to anabolic steroids and stimulants, erythropoietin, growth hormone, diuretics and glucocorticoids are regularly used to improve sport performance. In cycling, a biological passport will be used in an attempt to detect doping use. In future, the Olympic motto 'citius, altius, fortius' (faster, higher, stronger) will have ground-breaking consequences for the performance and health of top athletes.

In the present study, toremifene urinary excretion studies were evaluated in order to examine main metabolic reactions and to select target metabolites in doping control analysis. Urine samples from three female subjects were collected every 3 h for at least 15 days after the oral administration of a single dose of Fareston® (60 mg). The elemental compositions of the compounds detected were determined by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry using a time-of-flight system with accurate mass measurement. More detailed structure elucidation was obtained by monitoring the presence or absence of structure-specific ions, using product ion scan and neutral loss acquisition modes, whereas the metabolites urinary profiles were evaluated in selected reaction monitoring acquisition mode. The results showed that the main routes of phase-I modifications involved carboxylation of the chlorinated side chain, N-demethylation and hydroxylation in different positions. Fifteen metabolites were found in all subjects studied, most of them were detected for more than 10 days in the free, glucuronide and sulphate fractions, with a maximum of excretion generally after 9–22 and 34–47 h from drug administration. These metabolites can be divided in two groups: metabolites with the characteristic chlorine isotope pattern and metabolites without the characteristic chlorine isotope pattern. The most abundant and long-term compounds were the carboxylated metabolites followed by the hydroxylated metabolites. Their product ions originating after collision-induced dissociation were observed to occur prevalently in the dimethylaminoethoxy and in the chlorinated side chains. These structure-specific ions were used to design screening and confirmation procedures to positively identify toremifene administration in doping control analysis. Figure Suggested main metabolic routes of toremifene, as postulated by excretion studies followed by both LC-MS/MS assays with different acquisition modes and LC-QTOF

Doping use is an ongoing problem in contemporary sports. Despite efforts to detect and control doping, research on its etiology is limited, especially among elite-level athletes. The present study used an integrated social cognition model to examine the predictors of doping intentions. Structured anonymous questionnaires were completed by 1075 Greek adult elite-level athletes (M age = 25 years, SD = 5.89, 36.1% females) from both team and individual sports. Multiple regression and mediation analyses showed that attitudes, normative beliefs, situational temptation, and behavioral control significantly predicted doping intentions. A normative process was identified whereby situational temptation mediated the effects of normative beliefs on intentions. The findings provide the basis for future social cognition research in doping use, and set the framework for the development of evidence-based preventive interventions.

Drugs and methods to improve physical performance among athletes have been used since the beginning of sport history, but the use of performance enhancing drugs has not always been regarded as cheating. In short, the motives for doping are improving and maintaining physical functioning, coping with the social/psychological pressures and striving for social and psychological goals, including economic benefits. Factors such as, "doping dilemma", "win at all costs", cost versus benefit, and the specificity of some specific doping agents, also play major roles. It seems that action on the athletes' attitude about the achievement of physical improvement and creating effective methods to reveal the drug abuse, are two main ways in winning the struggle against doping.

Exercise is integral to the life of T1DM subjects. Several factors influence the metabolic response to exercise in these patients. Despite physical and psychological benefits of exercise, its hypo- and hyperglycemic effects may cause discouragement from participation in sports and games. To use existing evidence from literature to provide practical indications for the management of insulin therapy in subjects with T1DM who practice sports or physical activities. Bibliographic research was performed on PubMed and the main Systematic Review and Guidelines database were also searched. Existing guidelines are useful but the exact adjustments of insulin dose must be made on an individual basis and these adjustments can be made only by "trial and error" approach. These clinical indications may be a starting point from which health care providers can find practical advices for each patient.

Abstract

Doping in elite-sport is a topical issue that polarizes public opinion. This dissertation outlines crucial, fundamental questions that go unasked in general discourse about doping in elite-sport and that through being answered will allow the debate to be had at more meaningful level. 

This interdisciplinary dissertation draws widely on: scientific journal entries, textbooks, multimedia and official documents in subjects of biochemistry, biology, psychology and ethics.

A comprehensive, balanced, inter-disciplinary approach to the research that was used to form this dissertation allows for a multifactorial coverage of the issues addressed and means that, at the very least, the conclusions made have some equity.

This​ dissertation examines include: what doping is and who decides, the (not so) valiant institutional structures through which doping detection is currently undertaken, and what the current prevalence of doping is likely to be.  It aims to answer two questions: (i) is the playing field levelled by the current paradigm of doping prohibition? and (ii) in this human world, there are many examples of ideals that only fitfully work in reality, but is this an argument for not making the effort to put ideals into practice?

Through this research it can be concluded that doping is far more pervasive that WADA's statistics would suggest, doping detection methods are unfit for purpose, it is questionable whether the true motives for those who organise testing are more political than egalitarian and there are great genetic dissimilarities between elite-athletes (who are, as a group, already genetically superior to the rest of the population in terms of athletic potential).

All of these conclusions highlight that elite-sport has never and probably will never be an even playing field.  Looking forward, there are far-reaching moral and political implications for organised testing.

The list of prohibited substances in sports includes a group of masking agents that are forbidden in both in- and out-of-competition doping tests. This group consists of a series of compounds that are misused in sports to mask the administration of other doping agents, and includes: diuretics, used to reduce the concentration in urine of other doping agents either by increasing the urine volume or by reducing the excretion of basic doping agents by increasing the urinary pH; probenecid, used to reduce the concentration in urine of acidic compounds, such as glucuronoconjugates of some doping agents; 5alpha-reductase inhibitors, used to reduce the formation of 5alpha-reduced metabolites of anabolic androgenic steroids; plasma expanders, used to maintain the plasma volume after misuse of erythropoietin or red blood cells concentrates; and epitestosterone, used to mask the detection of the administration of testosterone. Diuretics may be also misused to achieve acute weight loss before ...

The list of prohibited substances in sports includes a group of masking agents that are forbidden in both in- and out-of-competition doping tests. This group consists of a series of compounds that are misused in sports to mask the administration of other doping agents, and includes: diuretics, used to reduce the concentration in urine of other doping agents either by increasing the urine volume or by reducing the excretion of basic doping agents by increasing the urinary pH; probenecid, used to reduce the concentration in urine of acidic compounds, such as glucuronoconjugates of some doping agents; 5alpha-reductase inhibitors, used to reduce the formation of 5alpha-reduced metabolites of anabolic androgenic steroids; plasma expanders, used to maintain the plasma volume after misuse of erythropoietin or red blood cells concentrates; and epitestosterone, used to mask the detection of the administration of testosterone. Diuretics may be also misused to achieve acute weight loss before ...

The misuse of medicines for performance enhancement in sport (doping) is not approved by regulatory agencies, and is illegal in many countries. In addition to the 'traditional' doping agents such as steroids, β-blockers and blood transfusions, the list of agents and techniques used in doping is increasing and now includes newer medicines such as erythropoiesis-stimulating agents and growth hormones. Innovative new medicines are of particular interest as would-be dopers may believe them to be undetectable by current methods. Close collaboration between the biopharmaceutical industry and anti-doping agencies such as the World Anti-Doping Agency is critical to a successful anti-doping strategy. Industry is ideally placed to identify the doping potential of new medicines at early stages and to support early development of detection assays. A strong, united front between the biopharmaceutical industry and anti-doping agencies is essential to counter the misuse of medicines for pe...