Shot of speed

Artificially produced EPO (erythropoietin) has been knocked off its perch as the doping method of choice for many athletes and has been replaced by treatments that stimulate the body to produce its own EPO, according to Patrick Diel, a gene doping expert at the German Sport University in Cologne.

"This is one of the biggest gene-doping threats that we face at the moment," Diel said. "Athletes who get their hands on these substances at the moment would have an unbelievable advantage. They wouldn't have to worry about testing positive."

Since the drugs intensify natural production of EPO, doping authorities can't prove the athlete used performance-enhancing drugs, Diel added.

Dangerous side effects

EPO-producing treatments were originally intended to help seriously ill patients suffering from anemia to increase the number of red blood cells to transport oxygen. Initial clinical studies were, however, stopped when the drug was found to cause numerous side effects, including thickening patients' blood, which increases the chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

But that wouldn't put off some athletes looking to improve their performance by fractions of inches or seconds, Diel said.

"Gene-doping specialists all say, 'There are too many side effects, I'd never use that,'" he added. "But side effects have never concerned anyone interested in doping."

While Diel says he's confident pharmaceutical companies aren't producing drugs to help athletes dope, individuals are making new medicines available on the black market.

"The companies don't plan to make super drugs available to athletes, but when something is in development, there are people who will take a few pills and sell them for 20,000 or 30,000 euros ($28,100 - $42,300)," Diel said.

Untraceable drugs

A type of drug developed for patients suffering from degenerative diseases was designed to turn off the gene that makes the body create myosatin, a protein that inhibits muscle growth, and fend off muscle atrophy. But myosatin inhibitors give healthy people the ability to grow abnormally large muscles.

The effects of limiting myosatin production was first observed in the so-called "mighty mice." One study showed muscles increased in strength by up to 27 percent in elderly mice, which normally lose up to a third of their muscle mass and strength as they age.

As another drug that promotes the body's ability to grow naturally, it would also not be detected by modern doping tests, Diel said, adding that the drug does not have any known side effects.

"That's a reason why it plays such a big role in doping," he said. "There's an immense interest in it."

Interest in performance-enhancing drugs is so great, Diel said, that he thinks only a few athletes aren't using them. He said surveys have shown athletes would be willing to take a drug that would cut 10 years off their lives in order to stand on the podium at the Olympic Games.

Doping not out of control

But even as doped athletes continue to make headlines around the world, the problem is not getting out of control, according to Rudhard Klaus Mueller, a board member at Germany's national anti-doping agency NADA.

"The increased effectiveness and efficiency of the tests shows that the problem is not exploding," he said.

But Mueller added that doping tests aren't the only way to detract from the lure of performance-enhancing durgs.

"We simply have to reach a point in sports where athletes and nations that don't put necessary tests in place ahead of major competitions are not taken seriously," he said.

Authors: Judith Hartl, Benjamin Wuest / sms

Editor: Susan Houlton