the future of doping pharmaceuticals

even though the public is becoming more educated on the topic of performance enhancement drugs, many more and diverse options are becoming available, some of which are still in early testing and development stages. so, to speculate for a moment, what does the future of doping look like? more specifically, putting aside genetic engineering and transhuminist developments, what kind of substances can we expect athletes to be using moving forward?

there is arguably a physiological limit to the functions of performance enhancing drugs. if cardiovascular performance is to be enhanced, for example, one can target cardiovascular components, metabolic systems, or less likely, gas exchange mechanisms. the human body works in such a fundamental manner, that targeting other systems makes little sense. for instance, advancements in cognitive or memory pharmaceuticals will likely have little if any effect on the ability to run a 10km race any faster.

what we can expect to see then are drugs that target the same systems we have historically come to expect, albeit with new, creative, inventive, and unforeseen ways. one example of this is a recently designed anemia drug, designed to simulate high-altitude exposure. as our posts in the past have explained, high-altitude exposure can stimulate epo production, leading to an increased hematocrit and oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. therefore, as one could surmise, this new pill also leads to epo production and theoretically enhances endurance performances.

instead of directly stimulating epo production however, this drug instead targets an enzyme called hypoxia inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase. the hypoxia inducible factor (hif) pathway is the biochemical pathway that is critical for cellular responses to low oxygen concentrations, as would occur at high altitude. prolyl hydroxylases are a class of enzymes that hydrolyze other proteins, and by hydrolyzing hif, it can effectively ‘turned off’ and inhibit its actions. therefore, by inhibiting the inhibitors, hif can maintain its effects for a longer period of time. think of this as stopping someone from turning off the light - the light switch can therefore stay on and the room stays light.

this willingness to explore these complex pathways shows the direction of future drugs - as we understand these biochemical pathways in more detail, the drugs that are created can continue to target a wider variety of enzymes.

i see this as the future of doping - although some athletes continue to do so, the days of simply injecting recombinant human epo are fading into the last millennia. instead, complex biochemical pathways are being manipulated at multiple levels to induce a very natural response, possible making detection more complex, and studies on health and safety of these drugs much more difficult.

what do you think is the future of doping? tweet @pedspective or comment below and get involved in the conversation.