Gene doping detection in the era of genomics

Gene doping is an emerging risk in sport due to fast development of gene editing technologies, and detection techniques are strongly needed to ensure competition fairness and health of athletes. In this paper, the authors summarize current tools for gene doping detection, highlight main challenges, and elaborate future utilizations of high-throughput sequencing for unbiased, sensitive, economic and large-scale gene doping detections. AbstractRecent progress in gene editing has enabled development of gene therapies for many genetic diseases, but also made gene doping an emerging risk in sports and competitions. By delivery of exogenous transgenes into human body, gene doping not only challenges competition fairness but also places health risk on athletes. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has clearly inhibited the use of gene and cell doping in sports, and many techniques have been developed for gene doping detection. In this review, we will summarize the main tools for gene doping detection at present, highlight the main challenges for current tools, and elaborate future utilizations of high-throughput sequencing for unbiased, sensitive, economic and large-scale gene doping detections. Quantitative real-time PCR assays are the widely used detection methods at present, which are useful for detection of known targets but are vulnerable to codon optimization at exon –exon junction sites of the transgenes. High-throughput sequencing has become a powerful tool for various applicat...
Source: Drug Testing and Analysis - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: REVIEW ARTICLE Source Type: research