Tweet
Designer Steroid That Avoids Detection Is Found
Scientists with the World Anti-Doping Agency announced yesterday that they had discovered a new designer steroid, one more complex and more dangerous to produce than THG, the previously undetected substance that has vaulted sports drug testing into a new era since 2003.
Anti-doping officials said the new drug, desoxy-methyl-testosterone, which they dubbed DMT, was uncovered after an anonymous e-mail tip directed the agency to investigate a substance seized by Canadian customs officials in June 2004. They also said they did not have any evidence the drug had been used.
Advertisement
"We believe it has been developed for the sole purpose of doping in sport," Olivier Rabin, the anti-doping agency's science director, said via teleconference yesterday. "We now know THG was not a unique case of designer steroids."
THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone, thrust the world of designer steroids into headlines when it was discovered in 2003, leading to the raid of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. That investigation led to the indictment of the Balco founder, Victor Conte Jr., and grand jury testimony by numerous elite athletes, including Barry Bonds and Marion Jones, who have been implicated in the scandal.
Since discovering DMT, scientists with the anti-doping agency, Canadian customs and the University of Laval in Quebec have been working since last July to decipher the structure of the compound, a clear, oily substance that they said was a modification of a common steroid, methyl-testosterone. Tests are continuing to determine how the substance is metabolized, which will lead to a way to test for it in urine.
But even before a specific test is developed, agency scientists said they had enough information to detect it, and many athletes' samples that the agency has saved over the past six months have been analyzed for it. They have found no examples of its possible use.
"Potentially, we are ahead of the dopers," Rabin said. "This shows the dopers how serious we are. We also want to show the clean athletes that we are doing everything in our power to prevent this drug from entering the paraphernalia of doping practices."
Rabin said nothing was known about the identity of the whistle-blower, who communicated with the anti-doping agency only through anonymous e-mail messages. That person, however, had detailed knowledge of the seizure by Canadian customs of the substances, which were being brought from the United States.
Agency officials said that customs officials were not releasing any details about that seizure and that an investigation was ongoing.
A similar anonymous tip uncovered the existence of THG in the summer of 2003, when a syringe was sent to the Olympic drug laboratory at U.C.L.A. Later, a track coach, Trevor Graham, admitted to sending the syringe.
That prompted the Balco investigation that resulted in the indictment of four men, including Conte. Recently, Conte has said the discovery of THG was only the first step in uncovering a designer-steroid industry and that there were more in circulation already.
THG was chemically altered to be undetectable in the drug tests being used at the time. Since then, a test has been developed. DMT was also designed to elude detection.
What was most alarming about DMT, according to Christiane Ayotte, director of Montreal's Olympic lab, is its complexity. Unlike THG, which required a one-step chemical reaction to produce it from its parent compound, DMT is created by several reactions.
"What this tells us is we have chemists with a very serious organic chemistry background that are helping the people who are distributing this substance to athletes," Ayotte said. "This is very dangerous because there is no purification."
Ayotte said one of the chemicals required to produce DMT was methyl lithium, a substance that could explode if exposed to moisture in the air. Without purification, traces of that substance could remain in the drug.
Ayotte was among the scientists who analyzed the drug since its discovery last summer. She said the anti-doping agency was cooperating with Canadian customs agents in the investigation of the source of the drug.
Scientists with the World Anti-Doping Agency announced yesterday that they had discovered a new designer steroid, one more complex and more dangerous to produce than THG, the previously undetected substance that has vaulted sports drug testing into a new era since 2003.
Anti-doping officials said the new drug, desoxy-methyl-testosterone, which they dubbed DMT, was uncovered after an anonymous e-mail tip directed the agency to investigate a substance seized by Canadian customs officials in June 2004. They also said they did not have any evidence the drug had been used.
Advertisement
"We believe it has been developed for the sole purpose of doping in sport," Olivier Rabin, the anti-doping agency's science director, said via teleconference yesterday. "We now know THG was not a unique case of designer steroids."
THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone, thrust the world of designer steroids into headlines when it was discovered in 2003, leading to the raid of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. That investigation led to the indictment of the Balco founder, Victor Conte Jr., and grand jury testimony by numerous elite athletes, including Barry Bonds and Marion Jones, who have been implicated in the scandal.
Since discovering DMT, scientists with the anti-doping agency, Canadian customs and the University of Laval in Quebec have been working since last July to decipher the structure of the compound, a clear, oily substance that they said was a modification of a common steroid, methyl-testosterone. Tests are continuing to determine how the substance is metabolized, which will lead to a way to test for it in urine.
But even before a specific test is developed, agency scientists said they had enough information to detect it, and many athletes' samples that the agency has saved over the past six months have been analyzed for it. They have found no examples of its possible use.
"Potentially, we are ahead of the dopers," Rabin said. "This shows the dopers how serious we are. We also want to show the clean athletes that we are doing everything in our power to prevent this drug from entering the paraphernalia of doping practices."
Rabin said nothing was known about the identity of the whistle-blower, who communicated with the anti-doping agency only through anonymous e-mail messages. That person, however, had detailed knowledge of the seizure by Canadian customs of the substances, which were being brought from the United States.
Agency officials said that customs officials were not releasing any details about that seizure and that an investigation was ongoing.
A similar anonymous tip uncovered the existence of THG in the summer of 2003, when a syringe was sent to the Olympic drug laboratory at U.C.L.A. Later, a track coach, Trevor Graham, admitted to sending the syringe.
That prompted the Balco investigation that resulted in the indictment of four men, including Conte. Recently, Conte has said the discovery of THG was only the first step in uncovering a designer-steroid industry and that there were more in circulation already.
THG was chemically altered to be undetectable in the drug tests being used at the time. Since then, a test has been developed. DMT was also designed to elude detection.
What was most alarming about DMT, according to Christiane Ayotte, director of Montreal's Olympic lab, is its complexity. Unlike THG, which required a one-step chemical reaction to produce it from its parent compound, DMT is created by several reactions.
"What this tells us is we have chemists with a very serious organic chemistry background that are helping the people who are distributing this substance to athletes," Ayotte said. "This is very dangerous because there is no purification."
Ayotte said one of the chemicals required to produce DMT was methyl lithium, a substance that could explode if exposed to moisture in the air. Without purification, traces of that substance could remain in the drug.
Ayotte was among the scientists who analyzed the drug since its discovery last summer. She said the anti-doping agency was cooperating with Canadian customs agents in the investigation of the source of the drug.
Comment