The First Genetically Modified Olympics

Gene therapy promises to shake up sports by 2008, and the first genetic dopers might even be competing at this year's summer games

(PRWEB) August 9, 2004 -- Lee Sweeney is a busy man. Ever since the University of Pennsylvania geneticist discovered that inserting a specific gene could increase muscle performance in rats, he's been swamped by calls and emails begging for treatment. And anyone who doubts that athletes would alter their genes to win gold need only speak with him-if they can reach him.

In an attempt to beat the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) drug tests, some athletes have turned to laboratories that produce and distribute undetectable performance-enhancing drugs. But as science advances, so does the potential for undetectable enhancements, and the next big thing isn't drugs but gene therapy: Manipulating DNA to enhance abilities in a nearly undetectable manner-in essence, changing the body itself to be stronger, faster and overall better for athletics.

With the 2004 Olympic Games upon us, an exclusive report by Betterhumans (http://www.betterhumans.com) shows that World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) members, International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials and others think that genetic doping looms. "Whether it's a reality in the real world of athletics no one knows yet but we all think it will be a reality in the reasonably near future," says Theodore Friedmann, a member of WADA's health medicine research committee and an expert on gene transfer therapy. Others are less conservative. "I think it's a concern for this year's Olympics," says Andy Miah, a professor at the University of Paisley, Scotland and author of Genetically Modified Athletes.

Gene therapy involves the injection of therapeutic genes into a subject's cells to replace faulty or nonexistent genes or to augment the level of gene activity, which controls how much of a protein is produced. A vector, typically an altered virus, delivers the genes to target cells.

Sweeney's gene therapy discovery, which has made him the target of so many athlete inquiries, came earlier this year while looking for a treatment for muscular dystrophy. Sweeney and his team discovered that by injecting the gene for insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) into rats, the animals were able to better build and retain muscle. Rats injected with IGF-1 increased muscle size and strength by 15% to 30%, while rats injected with the gene and then put through ladder-climbing exercises doubled their muscle strength. The study results, published in the March issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, indicate that if healthy people inject IGF-1 their muscles would get stronger without doing additional exercise. And for elite athletes, the benefits could be even more profound, making the effects of training last longer and helping them overcome injury more easily.

As the Betterhumans report shows, such research has made the prospect of genetic doping a near-term concern for the IOC. Despite all the research, however, gene therapy is still potentially deadly. To address the risks, countries have set up regulatory mechanisms. But such mechanisms are often limited. And the risks associated with gene therapy in its current incarnation, as well as the risks of breaking regulations, might not be enough to deter some people from setting up black market labs to provide genetic enhancement for a fee. It could take anywhere from $100,000 to a million dollars to set up a black market gene therapy lab. All the general approaches are published in the scientific literature and most graduate level molecular biology students could perform the procedures. "To do it right would be difficult and very expensive," says Friedmann. "To do it wrong would be easy and cheap."    

Furthermore, gene therapy is nearly impossible to detect. WADA is researching and developing new genetic approaches, such as imaging and molecular methods, to detect evidence of genetic enhancement, but even these might not be enough.

For this reason and others, explains the Betterhumans report, not everyone agrees that gene therapy should be outlawed in sports. Miah says that the IOC can't treat genetic modification like any other form of doping. "It's not sufficient simply to prohibit this technology in sport," says Miah, "and hope that will be the end of the issue." Given the threat of black market labs and the lack of a valid method of detection, Miah says that prohibition isn't the best option. "Increasingly, genetic modification will be seen as a valuable aspect of our society," says Miah, "promoting health and benefiting humanity."

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