Researchers at the University of Nottingham have come up with a highly sensitive anti-doping steroid test making use of hydropyrolysis that was previously used for the purpose of oil exploration.
Hydropyrolysis is a process in which high pressure environments are used to investigate the chemical structure of a sample in order to detect levels of illicit steroids in urine. This latest test is expected to be used in the 2012 Olympics.
This study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Councils Ocean Margins LINK program. As per Colin Snape, Professor of Chemical Technology and Chemical Engineering at the University, though steroids are produced in the body in a natural way, they tend to have a varying carbon 13/carbon 12 ratios to those introduced in an illicit way.
From Bio-Medicine.Org:
Funding from the Natural Environment Research Councils Ocean Margins LINK programme saw researchers take the hydropyrolysis technique and apply it to geochemical studies. This allowed the team to reconstruct the history of ocean basins to help assess whether it was worth drilling for oil. By taking core samples over geological time, the technique can detect the first charge, or presence, of oil.
But the same process can be used to detect the presence of illicit steroids in the urine of athletes and racehorses. High pressure hydrogen is used to bombard the sample at pressures of 150 atmospheres and temperatures of up to 500 degrees Celsius. This leaves sample molecules in a cleaner, less degraded state than other extraction techniques, allowing more accurate readings to be taken. Carbon isotopes are then measured, with the results showing the ratios of carbon 12 and carbon 13 in the sample whether geochemical or biological.
Colin Snape, Professor of Chemical Technology and Chemical Engineering at the University, said: Steroids are produced naturally in the body, but they have a different carbon 13/carbon 12 ratios to those that have been introduced illicitly. By refining the measurements of these two isotopes we can produce a very accurate test for the presence of illegal steroids in athletes.
Snape also remarked that researchers can investigate and come out with an accurate anti-doping steroid test in order to ascertain the presence of illegal steroids through refinement of measurement of the carbon 12 and carbon 13 isotopes.
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