Blood doping
This refers to the various ways by which athletes may artificially enhance the ability to increase oxygen to the exercising skeletal muscle, is one of our current research priorities. There are several ways of doing this – specific drugs, synthetic hemaglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs), blood transfusion
- We’ve published on potential modifications to the EPO assay to make it faster, and are currently generating interesting camel derived antibodies that may have better specificity and affinities.
- We’re also working on synthetic hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs), this mainly in collaboration with other anti-doping labs
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Where we’ve recently been concentrating on is looking for biomarkers of blood transfusion, both homologous and autologous – for this we’ve taken two approaches:
- One is molecular, with techniques such as autosomal short tandem repeat markers, as well as other nucleic acid based markers, still early in development.
- The other approach for this, where we’ve had some success is using metabolomics, specifically untargeted metabolomics, and have found a panel of metabolite markers for ABT. We’ve recently published this. However, early days, because we need to validate and confirm the robustness and reproducibility of these markers.
20-hydroxyecdysone
We were one, of only two groups within the anti-doping research community, that were investigating 20-hydroxyecdysone (also known as ecdysterone), a dietary supplement derived ecdysteroid, which was described an insect hormone, but identified in specific plants, that has the ability to enhance sport performance through favoring loss of fat mass and anabolic effects. We published on the analytical strategy for the detection of 20-OHE, and its metabolites, at about the same time that WADA put 20-HE on the monitoring list. We are now one of the WADA labs that regularly test for 20-HE in all the urine samples that we receive.
- One of the differences in the research at ADLQ is that we not only look to identify markers of dopants, but often go on to study their potential mechanisms of action, especially effects on blood flow. We found that 20-HE has vasodilatory capability and may be bringing about this effect mostly through the nitric oxide pathway, but independent of the estrogen receptor.
Biomarker discovery
We used untargeted metabolomics to analyze serum and urine samples for biomarkers of autologous blood transfusion. We found a panel of 9 metabolites that remained altered 7 days after the transfusion – 5 were upregulated, 4 downregulated. This is the first study to identify a panel of metabolites, from serum and urine, as markers of ABT. We hope to reproduce this in a new group of subjects, and independently validate these results, so ultimately, if proved robust, could be universally adopted to detect ABT.
- Having made some exciting advances in finding markers for autologous blood transfusion and GH administration using our metabolomics platform we are keen to take this forward. To do this we recently formed a collaboration with 3 other labs, and the aims of this consortium are to set up the assays for these metabolites, and then validate them in new samples.
Drone delivery*
This is a quickly expanding innovation with applications ranging from medical logistics to parcel delivery, especially when speed is of the essence. This cutting-edge technology has yet to be tested for the transport of anti-doping samples during major sporting events. The safety and reliability of drone delivery in inclement weather has raised some concern and there is only limited data on the stability of biochemical, haematological metabolic factors following this form of transport. We also wanted to address the newer analytical matrices, such as DBS, and techniques, such as metabolomics, to get some idea if they are at all affected by this form of transport, either favourably or adversely.
- This collaborative project between the International Testing Authority (ITA), who initiated this, Anti-Doping Lab Qatar (ADLQ) and Rigitech, a Swiss start-up. We conducted a proof-of-concept study to investigate whether drone delivery is secure, safe, reliable and in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code & WADA International Standard for Testing and Investigations (ISTI) provisions.
- The drones capable of landing and taking off vertically, were provided and piloted by Rigitech, Lausanne, with the capacity to carry a payload of 2.5 kg, in temperature regulated compartments. Five flights were conducted in March over a period of 4 days.
*The Drone delivery research was funded by PCC
We were one, of only two groups within the anti-doping research community, that were investigating 20-hydroxyecdysone (also known as ecdysterone), a dietary supplement derived ecdysteroid, which was described an insect hormone, but identified in specific plants, that has the ability to enhance sport performance through favoring loss of fat mass and anabolic effects. We published on the analytical strategy for the detection of 20-OHE, and its metabolites, at about the same time that WADA put 20-HE on the monitoring list.
One of the differences in the research at ADLQ is that we not only look to identify markers of dopants, but often go on to study their potential mechanisms of action, especially effects on blood flow. We found that 20-HE has vasodilatory capability and may be bringing about this effect mostly through the nitric oxide pathway, but independent of the estrogen receptor.
We used untargeted metabolomics to analyze serum and urine samples for biomarkers of autologous blood transfusion. We found a panel of 9 metabolites that remained altered 7 days after the transfusion – 5 were upregulated, 4 downregulated. This is the first study to identify a panel of metabolites, from serum and urine, as markers of ABT. We hope to reproduce this in a new group of subjects, and independently validate these results, so ultimately, if proved robust, could be universally adopted to detect ABT.
Having made some exciting advances in finding markers for autologous blood transfusion and GH administration using our metabolomics platform we are keen to take this forward. To do this we recently formed a collaboration with 3 other labs, and the aims of this consortium are to set up the assays for these metabolites, and then validate them in new samples
This is a quickly expanding innovation with applications ranging from medical logistics to parcel delivery, especially when speed is of the essence. This cutting-edge technology has yet to be tested for the transport of anti-doping samples during major sporting events. The safety and reliability of drone delivery in inclement weather has raised some concern and there is only limited data on the stability of biochemical, haematological metabolic factors following this form of transport. We also wanted to address the newer analytical matrices, such as DBS, and techniques, such as metabolomics, to get some idea if they are at all affected by this form of transport, either favourably or adversely.
This collaborative project between the International Testing Authority (ITA), who initiated this, Anti-Doping Lab Qatar (ADLQ) and Rigitech, a Swiss start-up. We conducted a proof-of-concept study to investigate whether drone delivery is secure, safe, reliable and in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code & WADA International Standard for Testing and Investigations (ISTI) provisions.
The drones capable of landing and taking off vertically, were provided and piloted by Rigitech, Lausanne, with the capacity to carry a payload of 2.5 kg, in temperature regulated compartments. Five flights were conducted in March over a period of 4 days.
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