New technique good enough to identify use of banned substances by athletes
by admin ~ November 25th, 2009.
Hydropyrolysis, a new technique for identifying the usage of steroids in competitive events, can offer a long jump forward for inhibiting doping, according to the findings of a research that was published in the journal Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry.
It is believed that this improved technique can offer insights to sporting drug officials when it comes to distinguishing between naturally-producing and synthetically-producing steroids.
From News-Medical.Net:
Although synthetic and naturally occurring steroids are similar, they differ in the ratio of ‘heavy’ carbon to ‘light’ carbon they contain. However, measuring this carbon ratio has previously been extremely difficult because the molecules react too aggressively with laboratory instruments to allow accurate analysis.
The new approach, developed by scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Nottingham, allows easy analysis of the carbon ratio. It uses a catalytic reaction to strip steroids of their more aggressive parts whilst leaving the carbon ’skeleton’ intact. This technique, called hydropyrolysis, is commonly used to aid oil exploration by freeing small fragments of organic matter from petroleum rock sources.
It was remarked by Dr Mark Sephton, from Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering and lead author of the research, that drug cheaters should beware after implementation of this technique as it would be now tedious to escape detection when the use of performance enhancing drugs is made.
The study is believed to offer new platform when it comes to inhibiting the use of steroids in sports.
Category: Anabolic Steroids | Tags: banned substances, hydropyrolysis, performance enhancing drugs, steroids, synthetically-producing steroids