Volume 94 Issue 32 | p. 27
Issue Date: August 2, 2016

Periodic Graphics: The Russian doping scandal

Chemical educator and Compound Interest blogger Andy Brunning untangles the complicated web of sports doping intrigue leading up to the Rio Olympics
By Andy Brunning
Department: Science & Technology
News Channels: Analytical SCENE, Biological SCENE, Organic SCENE
Keywords: periodic graphics, sports doping, performance-enhancing drugs, anabolic steroids, testosterone, oxandrolone
[+]Enlarge
This is an infographic describing the anabolic steroids involved in the Russian sports doping scandal leading up to the Rio Olympics in 2016.
 

To download a pdf of this article, visit http://cenm.ag/russiandoping.

To see more of Brunning’s work, go to http://compoundchem.com. To see all of C&EN’s Periodic Graphics, visit http://cenm.ag/periodicgraphics.

This article has been translated into Spanish by Divulgame.org and can be found here.

 
Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © American Chemical Society
Comments
david (Wed Aug 03 17:19:10 EDT 2016)
They should check for DNA in urine. If it is not the athlete's DNA or is a mixture, then switching is possible. A mixture can occur by substituting saliva from the athlete + another's urine. However, looking at the types of cells helps uncover this cheating as well. This is an easy and cheap test as the laboratory already has the blood so has the DNA for RFLP testing (or DQ-alpha).
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Bob (Wed Aug 03 17:40:00 EDT 2016)
You're a little behind the times. Forensic labs haven't used RFLP since the 1990s, and DQ-alpha went the way of the dinosaurs in the 2000s. Modern DNA labs use the PCR replication technique and STRs for DNA profiling.
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David (Thu Aug 04 08:30:40 EDT 2016)
Thanks for the update. I was just commenting that one could have applied these techniques to urine to identify the individual providing the sample even in the early 1990s. One need not have specific identification only that the sample under question was not consistent with individual A. We did use DQ-alpha at the time and if I remember correctly it is about 93% discriminatory (i.e about 1 in 20 random individuals have the same phenotype). We were one of the first to DNA type urine (frozen, old samples) but did not implement it because one can cheat the test. Therefore, I lost interest. Are the cheating techniques known or were they known a decade ago and thus could they been applied to these historic samples to beat the urine test? Although I alluded to it, should these cheating techniques be discussed on this forum?
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Mike Lewellyn (Thu Aug 04 16:47:37 EDT 2016)
The Executive Director of the American Swimming Coaches Association has suggested that there exists a high through-put testing regimen that basically looks at the make up of blood or urine and flags anything that is NOT blood or urine and that method will allow the testing of all athletes and then only the flagged samples will need in depth testing. The problem always seems to be that the research into creating these substances for legitimate purposes always outstrips the development of the testing processes.
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