Gene doping
Gene doping refers to the alteration of human genes with the intent to enhance athletic performance, distinguishing it from gene therapy, which is aimed at treating genetic disorders. This practice emerged as a possibility following advancements in genetic manipulation, where specific genes associated with fitness and performance could potentially be modified to improve attributes such as muscle strength and endurance. Although the concept of enhancing athletic ability is not new—dating back to ancient Olympic athletes who sought various performance-enhancing methods—modern implications raise ethical and health concerns.
Sports authorities, notably the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), have strictly prohibited gene doping, equating it to traditional doping practices. The ban is rooted in fears of uneven competition and the potential dangers of genetic manipulation, as evidenced by experimental failures in animal studies. Despite the absence of documented cases of gene doping in sports, the emergence of accessible gene-editing technologies, such as CRISPR-Cas9, poses new challenges in detection and regulation. As the dialogue around gene doping continues, it raises significant questions about fairness, safety, and the future of sports competition.
Gene doping
Gene doping refers to scientists’ attempts to manipulate human genes to enhance athletic performance. Gene doping is an outgrowth of gene therapy, which is the scientific and medical term for rehabilitating function in a damaged or mutilated gene or providing a missing gene through medical procedures. Whereas gene therapy is exclusively used to make sick people well, gene doping is a means to make healthy people more athletically able.
While most of the field of the human genome is still uncharted territory, there are genes that have been identified as related to human fitness and athletic capability, and their "tweaking" could enhance muscle tone, stamina, and many other physical attributes that would aid athletes in competitive sports. "Tweaking" a gene could mean adding copies of a specific gene by means of DNA injection or manipulating existing genes by lessening or amplifying their behavior.
Brief History
In ancient times, athletes slated to compete in the Greek Olympics would explore any means to give them an athletic advantage. Some would "dope" by ingesting exotic herbs or animal testicles to enhance performance. Nothing was considered over the top or illegal, save for using black magic to cast an evil spell against rivals, which was done despite the injunction. Competition was fierce. The same can be stated regarding sports of the modern era except that the stakes are higher. In bygone times, prize money was minimal, and the prime motivating factor for any athlete was the honor received for winning a match. In the modern era, an athlete can represent an entire team consisting of doctors, trainers, technicians, and myriad companies sponsoring that athlete, and all are highly invested in that athlete’s prowess and success.
All of this tension led to athletes doping in a conventional sense, which means using performance-enhancing drugs. Many sports authorities were quick to ban these drugs, asserting that it is a form of cheating. Many athletes experimented with these drugs, nonetheless, even at the risk of being stripped of or losing recognition for prior accomplishments. When the medical experts published findings on breakthroughs in the field of human genetics and their manipulation, the sports world was keeping close watch. Immediately, doctors and trainers of athletic teams and sportspersons deduced that however a gene was being manufactured or tweaked to cure illness, the same could be done to enhance athletic performance and maybe even create a "super athlete." The sporting authorities’ reaction was swift—banning any type of gene doping that would pertain to sport.
The most notable among these authorities was the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA), created in 1999. WADA has declared that nontherapeutic use of genetic elements or modulation of genes to enhance performance would disqualify an athlete, as per conventional doping. Gene doping has been prohibited in the Olympics and Paralympics, but has been notably absent from the bans published by Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the National Basketball Association.
Overview
Authorities opposed to gene doping claim that, aside from creating unfair play, manipulating genes is extremely dangerous and can even be fatal. Experts cite studies that were done with macaque monkeys injected with a gene to fight anemia. Initially, the procedure was a success, and the monkeys produced a higher number of red blood cells. Eventually, however, the blood thickened into a fatal red sludge, and blood had to be drained from them regularly to keep them alive. After the monkeys’ immune systems kicked in, they became severely anemic. The experiment failed, and the monkeys were euthanized.
Aside from the risks of unpredictability of the genes injected, the means of getting them inside the body and directing them to the proper place may be harmful as well. Gene transfer with the most probability of success is that of ex vivo, the cells from the human to be modified are taken out to be treated and then returned into the same body. In vivo treatment of cells would mean that cells can be prepared for many individuals at once generically, lowering prohibitive costs, albeit raising health risks. Most of the time that gene modification is mentioned in regard to gene therapy or gene doping, it refers to somatic cell modification, which indicates that the change happens in a specific cell such as a lung or muscle cell. The alteration would not be passed on to children.
In germ-like modification, the cells affected would be the sex cells and could be manifest in offspring. Minimal research has been funded for germ-like modification as it is seen as highly theoretical as well as being banned as unethical. There are no recorded cases of genuine gene doping in professional or amateur sports, though cyclists have been caught doping with the synthetic form of erythropoietin (EPO) that controls production of red blood cells, allowing more oxygen to be carried in the athlete’s blood. The cyclist Lance Armstrong had a synthetic form of EPO detected in his blood and was stripped of all achievements and banned from the sport for life. Eero Mantyranta, a Finnish cross-country skier, won two gold medals in the 1964 Olympics in Austria and suffered a rare genetic disorder: his body produced excess EPO, providing more stamina due to more oxygen in the blood.
WADA has been on high alert for doping scandals and has held conferences with scientists, experts, ethicists, and athletes to create awareness of the imminent ability to manipulate genes and to investigate ways to detect gene alteration in an athlete after it has been done. A 2023 article published by the Genetic Literacy Project expressed concerns about an inexpensive form of gene editing called CRISPR-Cas9 that has made gene editing a reality in some cases, such as to correct genetic disorders, treat diseases, and improve crops. Gene doping using CRISPR would be impossible to detect if athletes began using it to give themselves an athletic advantage.
Bibliography
Duncan, David Ewing. "So Long, Lance. Next, 21st-Century Doping." New York Times. New York Times, 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 6 June 2016.
Franks, Tim. "Gene Doping: Sport’s Biggest Battle?" BBC News. BBC, 12 Jan. 2014. Web. 6 June 2016.
"Gene Doping." World Anti-Doping Agency. WADA, 2016. Web. 6 June 2016.
Keteyian, Armen. "Russian Doping at Sochi Winter Olympics Exposed." 60 Minutes Interview. CBS Interactive, 8 May 2016. 2016. Web. 6 June 2016.
Moxon, Sam. "CRISPR Gene Doping: The Next 'Big Issue' in World Athletics." Genetic Literacy Project, 31 Mar. 2023, geneticliteracyproject.org/2023/03/31/crispr-gene-doping-the-next-big-issue-in-world-athletics/. Accessed 24 Nov. 2024.
Nasr, Susan L. "How Gene Doping Works." HowStuffWorks, 9 June 2023, science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/gene-doping.htm. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
Pray, Leslie. "Sports, Gene Doping, and WADA." Nature Education 1.1 (2008):77. Web. 6 June 2016.
Unal, M., and Unal D. Ozer. "Gene Doping in Sports." Sports Med. 34. 6 (2004): 357–62. Web. 6 June 2016.