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Detecting the use of performance- enhancing drugs in sport might become easier thanks to the Australian development of a bacterial enzyme which recognizes when an athlete is doping.
Researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) are developing the enzyme so that it can detect banned substances over a longer period of time compared to the current tests undertaken by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Lead researcher Associate Prof. Malcolm McLeod from the ANU Research School of Chemistry said the enzyme interacts with any performance-enhancing drug in the subject's urine or blood sample, and "cleaves off" part of the drug to make it easier for scientists to analyze.
"Anabolic steroids and other banned drugs in sport may potentially improve an athlete's performance, but they can also be very dangerous and, in some cases, lethal," McLeod said in a statement released late on Thursday.
"The improved enzyme could enable labs to detect doping for a longer period after an athlete takes a banned drug."
The researchers initially published their findings in a 2015 paper published in the Drug and Testing Analysis magazine, however since then McLeod and his team managed to change the make-up of the enzyme so that it can detect more banned substances than first thought.
"(The) enzyme is found in all sorts of environments which we've purified and studied, and we've received funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency to improve its ability to test (for) more drugs, " McLeod said.
"We're working with a biotechnology company in Chile to evaluate the improved enzymes and they have sent them to three analytical labs (which conduct anti-doping tests for sporting events) around the world.
"We hope this enzyme will quickly become a powerful tool used by labs in the fight against doping in sport."
The study comes as doubts continue to be cast over the legitimacy of a number of athletes at the Rio Olympics.
Earlier this year, Russian track athletes were banned from competing at the Olympics after a systematic doping regime was uncovered in the lead up to the Games.
(APD)
