Gotowa bibliografia na temat „Sports anti-doping laboratories”

In addition to their therapeutic applications, glucocorticosteroids have been widely used and abused in the belief that these substances may enhance athletic performance. Analysis of athlete urine samples by antidoping laboratories around the world support this conclusion. It is commonly accepted in medical practice to use local glucocorticosteroid injections in the treatment of non-infectious local musculotendinous inflammatory conditions conveying symptom relief and often a speedier return to sporting activity. This practice is not to be considered illicit, but sports physicians must accept that such an intervention is not in itself an immediate cure and that an athlete will still require a period of recuperation before continuing sporting activity. How long such a period of recuperation should last is a matter of conjecture and there is little concrete data to support what is, or what is not, an acceptable period of inactivity. In the interest of athlete safety, we would propose to maintain systemic glucocorticosteroids on the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) list of prohibited substances, both in and out-of-competition as well as a mandatory period of 48 hours of rest from play after receiving a local glucocorticosteroid injection.

Abstract Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) are prohibited as performance-enhancing drugs in sports. Among them, testosterone and its precursors are often referred to as “pseudoendogenous” AAS, that is, endogenous steroids that are prohibited when administered exogenously. To detect their misuse, among other methods, the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratories monitor the steroid profile (concentrations and concentration ratios of endogenous steroids, precursors and metabolites) in urine samples collected from athletes in and out of competition. Alterations in steroid profile markers are used as indicators for misuse of anabolic steroids in sports. Therefore, especially their metabolic pathways with possible interactions are crucial to elucidate. As steroid metabolism is very complex, and many enzymes are involved, certain non-prohibited drugs may influence steroid metabolite excretion. One important group of steroid-metabolizing enzymes is aldo–keto reductases (AKRs). An inhibition of them by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which are neither prohibited nor monitored, but frequently used drugs in sports, was demonstrated in vitro. Thus, this work aims to investigate the influence of NSAID intake on the urinary steroid profile. Kinetic and inhibitory studies were performed using 5α-dihydrotestosterone as substrate. The results obtained from in vitro experiments show that ibuprofen inhibits AKR1C2 and thus influences steroid biotransformation. For in vivo investigations, urine samples prior, during and postadministration of ibuprofen were analyzed using routine methods to monitor the steroid profile. Changes in markers of the steroid profile of volunteers were observed. The combination of in vitro and in vivo results suggests that monitoring of ibuprofen may be useful in doping control analysis. The presented work illustrates the importance to consider co-administration of (non-prohibited) drugs during antidoping analysis. Intake of multiple substances is likely leading to interfering effects. Divergent results in antidoping analysis may therefore be observed and misinterpretation of analytical data may occur. Similar considerations may be appropriate for other fields of forensic applications.

Abstract BACKGROUND Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) stimulates testosterone production by the testicles. Because of the potential for abuse, hCG is banned (males only) in most sports and has been placed on the World Anti-Doping Agency list of prohibited substances. Intact hCG, free β-subunit (hCGβ), and β-subunit core fragment (hCGβcf) are the major variants or isoforms in urine. Immunoassays are used by antidoping laboratories to measure urinary hCG. Cross-reactivity with isoforms differs among immunoassays, resulting in widely varying results. We developed a sequential immunoextraction method with LC-MS/MS detection for quantification of intact hCG, hCGβ, and hCGβcf in urine. METHODS hCG isoforms were immunoextracted with antibody-conjugated magnetic beads and digested with trypsin, and hCGβ and hCGβcf unique peptides were quantified by LC-MS/MS with the corresponding heavy peptides as internal standard. hCG isoform concentrations were determined in urine after administration of hCG, and the intact hCG results were compared to immunoassay results. RESULTS The method was linear to 20 IU/L. Total imprecision was 6.6%–13.7% (CV), recovery ranged from 91% to 109%, and the limit of quantification was 0.2 IU/L. Intact hCG predominated in the urine after administration of 2 hCG formulations. The window of detection ranged from 6 to 9 days. Mean immunoassay results were 12.4–15.5 IU/L higher than LC-MS/MS results. CONCLUSIONS The performance characteristics of the method are acceptable for measuring hCG isoforms, and the method can quantify intact hCG and hCGβ separately. The limit of quantification will allow LC-MS/MS hCG reference intervals to be established in nondoping male athletes for improved doping control.

AbstractAlthough the fight against the use of doping in sport has been going on for almost 90 years, its effects have become tangible in the last 45 years only, thanks to the use of valid and sensitive analytical methods. Historically, extensive international scientific cooperation and technological progress have laid down the basis for the development of high quality doping control laboratories worldwide. New biotechnology products are constantly being discovered and are made available on the doping market, so that anti-doping approaches must be raised to a higher level, and analytical methods must be constantly improved and refined, since it has bacome obvious that to some extent they lag behind new sophisticated doping agents. However, all the methods must first be scientifically proven and tested in order to be adequately used against doping in sport. If the technology and systematic use of the latest scientific anti-doping knowledge continue to develop and advance, it will greatly contribute to the development of analytical methods.

Chromatography is the term used to describe a separation technique in which a mobile phase carrying a mixture is caused to move in contact with a selectively absorbent stationary phase. It also plays a fundamental role as an analytical technique for quality control and standardization of phyto therapeuticals. Gas Chromatography is used in the separation and analysis of multi component mixtures such as essential oils, hydrocarbons and solvents. Various temperature programs can be used to make the readings more meaningful; for example to differentiate between substances that behave similarly during the GC process. Intrinsically, with the use of the flame ionization detector and the electron capture detector (which have very high sensitivities) gas chromatography can quantitatively determine materials present at very low concentrations. Plants are a rich source of secondary metabolites with interesting biological activities. In general, these secondary metabolites are an important source with a variety of structural arrangements and properties. Gas chromatography - specifically gas-liquid chromatography - involves a sample being vapourised and injected onto the head of the chromatographic column. The sample is transported through the column by the flow of inert, gaseous mobile phase. The column itself contains a liquid stationary phase which is adsorbed onto the surface of an inert solid. The principle of gas chromatography is adsorption and partition. Within the family of chromatography- based methods gas chromatography (GC) is one of the most widely used techniques. GC-MS has become a highly recommended tool for monitoring and tracking organic pollutants in the environment. GC-MS is exclusively used for the analysis of esters, fatty acids, alcohols, aldehydes, terpenes etc. It is the key tool used in sports anti-doping laboratories to test athlete’s urine samples for prohibited performanceenhancing drugs like anabolic steroids. Several GC-MS have left earth for the astro chemistry studies. As a unique and powerful technology the GC-MS provides a rare opportunity to perform the analysis of new compounds for characterization and identification of synthesized or derivatized compound.

Long term storage of the anti-doping samples and their ­reanalyses becomes today more and more a trend in the anti-doping community. The procedure has been implemented by the anti-doping authorities for the samples of the Tour de France and for the Olympic Games since Athens 2004 and has been always presented as a good tool to deter doping habits in top level sport. Recently, the World Anti-Doping Code introduced the possibility for anti-doping organizations to store the athletes’ samples up to ten years. The anti-doping authorities may ask to reanalyze the samples at any time during that period of time as a function of the implementation of new methods or instruments in the accredited laboratories allowing the detection of prohibited substances or their metabolites at a much lower concentration or for a larger detection window. The most significant technological advances for the detection of doping substances have been done in the characterization of various long-term metabolites of anabolic androgenic steroids. This allowed for increasing the time of detection by even a factor of four.

AbstractThe athlete biological passport (ABP) is an established means for longitudinal monitoring of selected individual biomarkers of an athlete to obtain indirect but potentially long-term indications of the use of substances or methods prohibited in sport. Along the change from population-based reference values to individual profiling, the ABP aims at triggering follow-up investigations concerning the potential use of endogenous substances with doping potential, which might be difficult either to identify with the existing analytical methods or to interpret based only on the results of a single biological sample. The ABP program has been on-going within the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) management since 2009, when the hematological module was officially established to discover blood doping practices, such as administration of erythropoietin (EPO) or application of blood transfusion. Since 2014, the ABP has been complemented by the steroid module, with the aim of targeting the prohibited use of testosterone and other endogenous anabolic androgenic steroids with performance enhancing or masking capability. Although the main objective is to guide and assist the anti-doping organizations in their test distribution plans, the ABP may also be used to proceed with a case to an anti-doping rule violation. Evaluation of biological markers, especially in distinguishing between doping from other confounding factors, requires high level and diversity of expertise, which is coordinated by the athlete biological passport management unit (APMU). Since 2019, the WADA accredited anti-doping laboratories are defined as the host organizations for the APMUs. The benefit of such a structure is to obtain a fully anonymous evaluation process for the passports and an additional level of expertise for the interpretation of analytical results as well as to have a fluent communication line with the analyzing laboratories when further details are needed for the analytical testing and documentation.

As humanity is increasingly confronted by shared, complex, multi-faceted problems, experts with particular knowledge and expertise are called upon to develop solutions which can be implemented internationally. Such a role requires that experts work alongside professionals from a variety of different fields as well as creating the necessary knowledge and skills to solve the problems at hand. This thesis presents the outcomes of grounded research into the dynamics of expert work based on a case study of the scientific directors of accredited sports anti-doping laboratories. The study addressed questions about how both the directors and their stakeholders viewed the work of these scientific experts. It also investigated how these experts maintained their expertise in the rapidly changing context of doping in sport. The research design integrated the methods of case study, grounded theory and developmental work research. Qualitative data was elicited using a combination of standard qualitative research methods such as semi structured interviews, surveys and participant observation, and an adaptation of the activity theory based developmental work research methods. The results of data analysis were interpreted using the theoretical frameworks of Activity Theory, Communities of Practice and the complexity based Cynefin model of organic sensemaking. The subsequent development of a grounded theoretically informed model pointed to the existence of multiple objects for expert work and the critical role of a trusted, private, shared space for the development of individual and collective identities, the expansion and application of validated knowledge within the field and the establishment of a shared and informed base from which experts can engage with other professional groups working in the field. The model identified relationships between the volume of routine processes within a workplace and both the extent of knowledge-generating research work and the development of an awareness by experts of the benefits of greater participation with other stakeholders in the broader problem context. This international study also provided insights into the complex, evolving and emergent nature of multi-stakeholder activity and identified avenues for further research into the optimum dynamics of inter-agency working in both local and global contexts.