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Bad blood

The possible use of illicit substances and practices, such as blood doping, have hung over the Winter Olympics in Turin. news@nature.com takes a look at what has been going on.

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Posted by on February 24, 2006
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Thank you for a timely news story "Bad [or Good?] Blood".

XX Olympic Games in Torino, Italy, brought several important observations on doping policies, demanding attention by the general public, athletes, their coaches and sports communities. Let me focus on two issues discussed in the news@nature.com .

1. No advanced mention of high altitude in the ski governining body "FIS Procedural Guidelines 2005/2006" (with regard to Turin Olympics) abused athletes.

This matter was raised by the Inernationl Ski Federation (FIS, www.fis-ski.com ), who issued start prohibitions by twelve athletes "due to too high haemoglobin values registered in FIS pre-Olympic testing". The official FIS media releases of February 9 and 10, 2006 stated that "in the course of the pre-competition blood testing carried out by FIS in Torino whereby all Cross-Country and Nordic Combined Athletes will be tested prior to their first competition at the Olympic Winter Games, [twelve] athletes have today been issued with a start prohibition for five consecutive days due to too high haemoglobin values..." FIS added, that "this prohibition from participating in the competition(s) is not a sanction, but is considered to serve to protect the health of the Athlete. Consequently, no disciplinary measures will be taken." The Ski news release then quoted "Article B.4.2 of the Procedural Guidelines to the FIS Anti-Doping Rules" [and refered to the "FIS Procedural Guidelines 2005/2006 to the FIS Anti-Doping Rules" governing FIS antidoping operations at Torino Olympic Games and matching the perss release wording. What FIS Guidelines 2005/2006 missed was any consideration of a high altitude at the spot of Turin Olympic Ski's training and competition. Only after 12 start prohibitions were issued few days before Olympic Games began, FIS provided official clarification as a QnA with Professor Bengt Saltin, Chairman of FIS Medical Committee. He noted, that "The haemoglobin value increases naturally when an individual resides at a high altitude for more than a few days" and that "the increase is greater the higher the altitude." Dr.Saltin noted that "also severe dehydration, especially in high altitude conditions, can lead to an increase of haemoglobin in blood," and that "high haemoglobin can also be the result of EPO doping or blood transfusion."

Dr. James Morton of the Liverpools' Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences (who recently contributed research article "Effects of intermittent hypoxic training on aerobic and anaerobic performance" ), in his email comment submitted to the Doping Journal agrees "fully with the comments that Prof Saltin has made. The high haemoglobin values observed in several of the athletes could be explained by naturally occurring adaptations to hypoxia or pre-games hypoxic training." Dr. Morton adds that "perhaps testing schedules after several days of acclimatisation should be incorporated in the future", that "this approach would offset any high haemoglobin values that are due to any initial physiological adjustments due to hypoxic exposure and accompanying dehydration." We also agree that high haemoglobin values are certainly a health risk and suggest that such testing may indeed have the athletes best interest at heart. Any illegal blood doping, however, should be detected in the IOC's urine testing program and would therefore end the controversy."

A research article by Belgian scientists published in Blood (the Journal of the American Society of Hematology) suggested that there could be problems with the accepted by International Olympic Committee (IOC) urine testing for recombinant human forms of erythropoietin (Epo), administration that represents (according to WADA classification) a form of Blood Doping.

2. Blood journal study suggests WADA / IOC testing for erythropoietin is not reliable

Endogenous and recombinant human forms of Epo (rhEpo) have different pattern of molecule modification called glycosylation. Such a tiny difference between natural Epo, its' biotechnological and structural analogs (such as Darbepoetin) leads to the molecule electric charge differences that have been exploited to distinguish endogenous and recombinant isoforms by isoelectric focusing technique (IEF).

The adopted by WADA urine test for EPO is based on a combination of isoelectric focusing on a gel (a semi-analytical separation of proteins according to the molecules' net electric charge), the transfer of proteins from gel to a special paper and protein detection by a double immunoblotting, relatively new complicated procedure to immunologically detect proteins of interest with an antibody color reaction.

In the Blood journal study research group led by Associate Professor Monique Beullens and Professor Mathieu Bollen (of the Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium) and their colleague Dr. Joris R Delanghe (of the Department of Clinical Chemistry, University Hospital, Gent, Belgium) shows that WADA test for Epo can lead to the false-positive detection of rhEpo in post-exercise, protein-rich urine of the endurance sports athletes.

As a result of a disputed case of alleged rhEpo-abuse by an endurance athlete with post-exercise proteinuria, European scientists wondered whether the test for rhEpo can lead to false-positive results, perhaps as a result of cross-reactivity of the Epo-antibodies with unrelated to Epo other proteins of urine.

Straightforward experimental protocol of the reported study raised big concern that the major urinary protein that WADA test visualizes with the ani-Epo antibodies is actually not Epo.

The article by Belgian scientists therefore challenges WADA claim that "the detection method for EPO is valid and reliable." Similarly faulty may now sound another WADA statement that the method for Epo detection "has undergone an extensive scientific validation..." and that "it is a well-established procedure widely accepted by the scientific community, as demonstrated by publication in a number of international scientific journals."

Contrary to WADA claim, the Doping Journal analysis of citation impact of earlier publications on Epo testing in urine indicates IOC/WADA method for Epo testing is not well-established or accepted. An in depth analysis of the articles behind the IOCs' urine test for Epo shows these earlier publications (including Nature article 2000) missed critical control experiments and were not designed to exclude non-specific false-positive misidentification of other non-Epo urine components.

Therefore "WADA 2006 Prohibited List" section S2 on "Hormones and Related Substances" (stating with regard to Epo that "unless the athlete can demonstrate that the [Epo] concentration was due to a physiological or pathological condition" [an urine sample] deemed to contain a prohibited substance Epo") provides the grounds for blood doping corruption, may abuse athletes, and obstruct Olympic play true principal.

For references-rich extended full text of this posting please explore the news section of the Doping Journal, an independent non-profit international peer-reviewed scholar publication on every aspect of doping science. As an Open Access (OA) publication, Doping Journal is available free of charge for everyone with a computer and an Internet connection. It is indexed by the National Library of Medicine USA, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and a great number of academic and public libraries worldwide. During the XX Olympic Games in Turin, Doping Journal revised its scope by committing to protect athletes from possible misconduct by their Sports Organizations and Anti-Doping Control bodies. For more info please visit Doping journal online at www.dopingjournal.org .

Posted by: Alexei Koudinov | February 27, 2006 02:11 PM

it will be cause the war or bad events in countries,but it is a reality.ı think,a lot of race will destroyed.(my english not well,if I am wrong ,excuse me!).

Posted by: güzel sözler | March 16, 2007 02:42 PM

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