Gene doping is simply&nbsp;gene therapy&nbsp;in people who don&rsquo;t need it. The aim of gene therapy is to permanently cure sick individuals of their conditions by altering their genetic makeup. The aim of gene doping, meanwhile, is to artificially enhance an individual &ndash; to make them better than themselves, perhaps even everyone &ndash; by altering their genetic makeup. In many respects, gene doping is similar to conventional performance enhancing drugs &ndash; they too are often misused medical treatments. However, gene doping could potentially have permanent effects, good and bad, and be much harder to detect. Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-gene-doping-and-will-any-athletes-at-rio-2016-have-tried-it-6323

Moran, Colin Neil

English

Stirling Online Research Repository (RIOXX)

9/23/2016 Explainer: what is gene doping – and will any athletes at Rio 2016 have tried it?https://theconversation.com/explainer­what­is­gene­doping­and­will­any­athletes­at­rio­2016­have­tried­it­63230 1/3AuthorColin MoranSenior Lecturer in Physiology, Exerciseand Nutrition, University of StirlingAcademic rigour, journalistic flairExplainer: what is gene doping – and will any athletes at Rio2016 have tried it?August 8, 2016 2.42pm BSTGene doping is simply gene therapy in people who don’t need it. The aim of genetherapy is to permanently cure sick individuals of their conditions by altering theirgenetic makeup. The aim of gene doping, meanwhile, is to artificially enhance anindividual – to make them better than themselves, perhaps even everyone – by alteringtheir genetic makeup. In many respects, gene doping is similar to conventionalperformance enhancing drugs – they too are o en misused medical treatments.However, gene doping could potentially have permanent effects, good and bad, and bemuch harder to detect.What advantage could it give athletes? We know that our genetic makeup is a very important part of sporting performance. Typically, 50% of the differences betweenpeople in natural talent, or in the way they respond to training, can be explained bygenetics. The ability to give athletes the “best” version of each gene for their chosensport could improve performance. Even more significantly, if we could manipulategenes easily – which the arrival of CRISPR technology seems to allow – we could evencreate versions of genes not found naturally, giving athletes supra-physiologicalamounts of key gene products. Effectively, we could create superhuman athletes.And a little more of that one… Shutterstock9/23/2016 Explainer: what is gene doping – and will any athletes at Rio 2016 have tried it?https://theconversation.com/explainer­what­is­gene­doping­and­will­any­athletes­at­rio­2016­have­tried­it­63230 2/3How does gene doping work? It doesn’t … yet. Gene therapy is an experimental medicaltreatment. Typically, an individual with a malfunctioning gene has that gene replacedby a working copy of the same gene. Usually, this involves highjacking a modified virusto get the edited gene into the right cell type to be useful. It’s no use adding new musclegrowing genes to your lungs – that won’t make you stronger whether you have a musclewasting disease or you’re an elite athlete. The problem is that these approaches areextremely difficult, potentially dangerous and still under development – at least if theyare to be fully tested and safe. Successful gene therapy may be only days away, but morelikely it is still years away.How would we detect gene doping? Gene doping was placed on the World Anti-DopingAgency (WADA) banned list in 2003. A year later, they created the Gene and Cell Doping Expert Group tasked with studying advances in the field, methods of detectinggene doping, and overseeing WADA research on the topic. Until recently, it was thoughtthat tests for gene doping would need muscle biopsies; but Australian researcher, AnnaBaoutina, has recently announced that her team can detect EPO gene doping with only a blood sample. If a simpler, less invasive, test such as this can be fully verified, it seemslikely that WADA will introduce it to their arsenal. Other, similar tests will undoubtedlyfollow.What are the risks? Clearly, gene doping would amount to cheating, making for anuneven and unfair playing field. But the most obvious risk is that it doesn’t work. Whileviruses have spent millions of years evolving ways to get into our cells, we equally havebeen evolving ways to stop them. Our immune systems can react against the modifiedviruses used to “implant” new or altered genes, potentially making them ineffective.Indeed, poorly executed gene therapy could make us sick – like any other viralStronger legs? There could be a fix for that. Shutterstock9/23/2016 Explainer: what is gene doping – and will any athletes at Rio 2016 have tried it?https://theconversation.com/explainer­what­is­gene­doping­and­will­any­athletes­at­rio­2016­have­tried­it­63230 3/3DNA Sport gene therapy Rio 2016infection – or worse. There is also the potential for off-target effects, whereby the genetherapy process unintentionally alters some of our healthy genes, creating unexpectedside effects.Even if gene doping were to work, changes that help athletes run faster may not begood for their long-term health. The infamous drug EPO, used by cyclist Lance Armstrong, increases the red blood cell count, allowing blood to carry more oxygen.This is good for aerobic exercise. However, those extra red blood cells also make bloodthicker, leading to an increased risk of stroke. Permanently increasing EPO productionwith gene doping, for example, might be a bad, potentially very dangerous, idea.So if gene doping doesn’t work, why test for it? It will work – very probably at least –and athletes may already be trying it. There is a huge scientific effort to ensure thatlegitimate gene therapy works. There are currently at least 181 active gene therapy clinical trials in the US and historically more than 2,000 worldwide. Many of thesefocus on treatments for anaemia or muscle wasting diseases that could ultimately beused for performance enhancement by athletes. There is also evidence that the world ofathletics has already reached out for gene doping technology. Top German coach, Thomas Springstein, reportedly once asked in an email about obtaining Repoxygen.Repoxygen was a prototype gene therapy system for the treatment of anaemia usingEPO. Athletes may have already tried this or other gene therapy prototypes.Will any competitors at Rio have tried it? There is a strong motivation to make genetherapy work for those with well understood genetic disease. It is a small step from genetherapy to gene doping. I doubt if any athletes at Rio will have successfully manipulatedtheir genes to their advantage – but it is not impossible that there will be some whohave tried.

Explainer: what is gene doping – and will any athletes at Rio 2016 have tried it?

Stirling Online Research Repository

9/23/2016 Explainer: what is gene doping – and will any athletes at Rio 2016 have tried it?https://theconversation.com/explainer­what­is­gene­doping­and­will­any­athletes­at­rio­2016­have­tried­it­63230 1/3AuthorColin MoranSenior Lecturer in Physiology, Exerciseand Nutrition, University of StirlingAcademic rigour, journalistic flairExplainer: what is gene doping – and will any athletes at Rio2016 have tried it?August 8, 2016 2.42pm BSTGene doping is simply gene therapy in people who don’t need it. The aim of genetherapy is to permanently cure sick individuals of their conditions by altering theirgenetic makeup. The aim of gene doping, meanwhile, is to artiﬁcially enhance anindividual – to make them better than themselves, perhaps even everyone – by alteringtheir genetic makeup. In many respects, gene doping is similar to conventionalperformance enhancing drugs – they too are oǔen misused medical treatments.However, gene doping could potentially have permanent eﬀects, good and bad, and bemuch harder to detect.What advantage could it give athletes? We know that our genetic makeup is a very important part of sporting performance. Typically, 50% of the diﬀerences betweenpeople in natural talent, or in the way they respond to training, can be explained bygenetics. The ability to give athletes the “best” version of each gene for their chosensport could improve performance. Even more signiﬁcantly, if we could manipulategenes easily – which the arrival of CRISPR technology seems to allow – we could evencreate versions of genes not found naturally, giving athletes supra-physiologicalamounts of key gene products. Eﬀectively, we could create superhuman athletes.And a little more of that one… Shutterstock9/23/2016 Explainer: what is gene doping – and will any athletes at Rio 2016 have tried it?https://theconversation.com/explainer­what­is­gene­doping­and­will­any­athletes­at­rio­2016­have­tried­it­63230 2/3How does gene doping work? It doesn’t … yet. Gene therapy is an experimental medicaltreatment. Typically, an individual with a malfunctioning gene has that gene replacedby a working copy of the same gene. Usually, this involves highjacking a modiﬁed virusto get the edited gene into the right cell type to be useful. It’s no use adding new musclegrowing genes to your lungs – that won’t make you stronger whether you have a musclewasting disease or you’re an elite athlete. The problem is that these approaches areextremely diﬃcult, potentially dangerous and still under development – at least if theyare to be fully tested and safe. Successful gene therapy may be only days away, but morelikely it is still years away.How would we detect gene doping? Gene doping was placed on the World Anti-DopingAgency (WADA) banned list in 2003. A year later, they created the Gene and Cell Doping Expert Group tasked with studying advances in the ﬁeld, methods of detectinggene doping, and overseeing WADA research on the topic. Until recently, it was thoughtthat tests for gene doping would need muscle biopsies; but Australian researcher, AnnaBaoutina, has recently announced that her team can detect EPO gene doping with only a blood sample. If a simpler, less invasive, test such as this can be fully veriﬁed, it seemslikely that WADA will introduce it to their arsenal. Other, similar tests will undoubtedlyfollow.What are the risks? Clearly, gene doping would amount to cheating, making for anuneven and unfair playing ﬁeld. But the most obvious risk is that it doesn’t work. Whileviruses have spent millions of years evolving ways to get into our cells, we equally havebeen evolving ways to stop them. Our immune systems can react against the modiﬁedviruses used to “implant” new or altered genes, potentially making them ineﬀective.Indeed, poorly executed gene therapy could make us sick – like any other viralStronger legs? There could be a fix for that. Shutterstock9/23/2016 Explainer: what is gene doping – and will any athletes at Rio 2016 have tried it?https://theconversation.com/explainer­what­is­gene­doping­and­will­any­athletes­at­rio­2016­have­tried­it­63230 3/3DNA Sport gene therapy Rio 2016infection – or worse. There is also the potential for oﬀ-target eﬀects, whereby the genetherapy process unintentionally alters some of our healthy genes, creating unexpectedside eﬀects.Even if gene doping were to work, changes that help athletes run faster may not begood for their long-term health. The infamous drug EPO, used by cyclist Lance Armstrong, increases the red blood cell count, allowing blood to carry more oxygen.This is good for aerobic exercise. However, those extra red blood cells also make bloodthicker, leading to an increased risk of stroke. Permanently increasing EPO productionwith gene doping, for example, might be a bad, potentially very dangerous, idea.So if gene doping doesn’t work, why test for it? It will work – very probably at least –and athletes may already be trying it. There is a huge scientiﬁc eﬀort to ensure thatlegitimate gene therapy works. There are currently at least 181 active gene therapy clinical trials in the US and historically more than 2,000 worldwide. Many of thesefocus on treatments for anaemia or muscle wasting diseases that could ultimately beused for performance enhancement by athletes. There is also evidence that the world ofathletics has already reached out for gene doping technology. Top German coach, Thomas Springstein, reportedly once asked in an email about obtaining Repoxygen.Repoxygen was a prototype gene therapy system for the treatment of anaemia usingEPO. Athletes may have already tried this or other gene therapy prototypes.Will any competitors at Rio have tried it? There is a strong motivation to make genetherapy work for those with well understood genetic disease. It is a small step from genetherapy to gene doping. I doubt if any athletes at Rio will have successfully manipulatedtheir genes to their advantage – but it is not impossible that there will be some whohave tried.

http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/24288/1/Moran-Conversation-2016.pdf

Explainer: what is gene doping – and will any athletes at Rio 2016 have tried it?

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