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5. Watch the Olympic Records Tumble.
In July 2004 the popular Scientific American magazine had as its cover the words: ‘Will Gene Doping change the nature of Sport?’ These dealt with the main article in the magazine (1). It should be noted that this article was written and published just prior to 2004 Olympics in Athens. The author noted that the sports authorities feared that a new form of doping may be in the process of development which will be undetectable and thus much less preventable. The types of treatment that were in development at that time (and still are) that are designed to regenerate muscle, increase its strength and protect muscles from degradation were considered at that time soon to be entering clinical trials. These are just some of the treatments that children with DMD are waiting for and the author specifically notes this. As the substances produced by these treatments are indistinguishable from their natural counterparts and generated within the muscles themselves, they would not be detectable by any blood test. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had even then alerted scientists to help find ways to prevent gene therapy from becoming accessible to athletes. The author discusses the potential types of gene therapy that were considered then to treat DMD and shows how these would be very relevant for Gene Doping.
This was four years ago but now we are again only a few weeks before the next Olympic games to be held in Beijing and in four years’ time here in London. How do we stand?
Earlier this year a general review on doping in sport appeared in a German medical journal (2). Of the various topics with which it deals, it includes a section on Gene Doping. The authors begin that section by pointing out that a new form of doping, namely Gene Doping, has moved onto centre stage in the doping story. Discussing the various ways in which foreign genes can be introduced into cells, with which we are all familiar they especially mention the use of viruses like the Adeno-associated viruses (Research Review 3). They mention experiments by Sweeney, (who wrote the article in Scientific American, referred to earlier), who had successfully induced increased muscle growth in mice by about 15% and that this would be completely un-testable in the blood of the animals. They conclude that if such techniques were to be used by athletes they would only be detectable by means of indirect evidence of bodily changes resulting from the incorporation and action of the foreign gene.
In May 2008, there appeared an article by Italian researchers on the difficulties of testing for Gene Doping (3). They believe that transgenes (or foreign genes) may be testable in body fluids to which there is access, in the near future. It might also be possible in future to test for the products of the expression of these genes. They describe a technique called Affinity-based biosensors (ABBs), which may in future be used for testing for these genes or their products. The fact that these studies are in progress indicates that there is an expectation that Gene Doping may well be used or being developed in some secret laboratories.
Whether any of these tests will be available in Beijing is questionable. In the meantime we will never know if athletes are using these techniques to enhance their performances, while we are crying out for the same techniques to help our DMD children. They do not care about side-effects, as we learned when the secrets of the terrible hormone treatments meted out to the East German athletes were described after 1989 and the fall of the Berlin wall.
It will be very interesting to see how many records will be broken in Beijing, especially in the track and field events, where an increase in muscle mass of 15% would certainly give an athlete a significant advantage!
References
1) Sweeney, H.L. (2004) Gene Doping. Scientific American. 291(1):63-69.
2) Striegel, H. & Simon, P. (2008) Doping. High-tech cheating in sport. Internist. 48(7):737-742.
3) Minunni, M., Scarano, S. & Mascini, M. (2008) Affinity-based biosensors as promising tools for gene doping detection. Trends in Biotechnology. 26(5):236-243.