The potentially explosive report released by the Australian Crime Commission into the use of drugs in Australian sport focused on a new form of performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs).
The report states: “These substances may provide effects similar to anabolic steroids and are considered by users to be next generation PIEDs.”
Four principle substances were identified by the ACC as being particularly prominent among reported cases of drug use:
• growth hormone releasing peptides (CJC-1295, GHRP-2, GHRP-6 and Hexarelin)
• growth hormone variants (AOD-9604)
• selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs)
• insulin like growth factor (IGF-1) and mechano growth factor (MGF).
What are these drugs, and how do they affect performance?
Growth hormone releasing peptides
Professor Robert Weatherby from the Division of Research at Southern Cross University says there are many types of peptides, and many of these are used in the body as hormones. “This one is working on releasing more growth hormone,” he says. “It's very similar to what athletes have been doing with anabolic steroids."
“There are ways of increasing how much natural testosterone is produced, and that's one way of getting around the testing.”
By releasing more hormone, this is replicating a process that already occurs naturally in the body, which makes it harder to detect than existing methods.
Growth hormone releasing peptides are linked to muscle and bone growth, and may also assist recovery from injury.
Growth hormone variants
Similar to peptides, says Weatherby, growth hormone variants have the same effect as growth hormone, but are shaped slightly differently at molecular level, making them harder to detect.
“Rather than use growth hormone itself, you can use another one which has a very similar shape. It's like a variation on growth hormone and it will do the same job.”
AOD-9604 is a variant of growth hormone that has fat burning properties, and may be used by athletes to increase power-to-weight ratios, the ACC report claims.
Selective androgen receptor modulators
This method refers to a way of manipulating receptors which exist within the body to make them more active, explains Weatherby.
“A modulator actually manipulates the way that receptor works, and it can make it more effective,” he says.
“The outcome, in many cases, can be muscle growth, increasing size and strength of the muscle, and so forth. We've got a really sophisticated way for testing anabolic steroids which are not the ones which are normally found in the body, so we can find those fairly well. So what people are doing is now trying to manipulate the testosterone itself.”
Insulin-like growth factor and mechano growth factor
Professor Weatherby says insulin-like growth factor uses the naturally occurring substance in the body to boost cell growth, which can assist strength.
“We've known about IGF-1 for a long time, but now it's actually easier to make them and people are looking at them in terms of therapeutic use, so if you're doing that then availability and potential for abuse by athletes becomes much easier."
Mechano growth factor, he says, is another naturally occurring substance in the body. “When you have muscle damage, this is actually produced in the body, and it's about repair.”
“So if you can actually signal more, you can get growth or repair to occur more quickly.”
Are these methods considered to be legal?
Most of the listed substances don't have formal approval as drugs, explains Professor Barrie Finnin from the Department of Pharmaceutics at Melbourne University.
“They could only be regarded as substances that have not gone through the regulatory approval process so that they haven't had their efficacy and safety established,” he says.
“Human growth hormone is an approved drug, but also not approved for use in sport.”
The ACC report notes many -- but not all -- of the substances listed here are prohibited for use by athletes by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Peptides and hormones: a confusing label?
A document released today by Charles Sturt University's School of Human Movement noted that the ACC report's collective labelling of the above substances as 'peptides and hormones' could be confusing.
"The problem with the label 'peptides and hormones', without extensive clarification, is that there are thousands of peptides within the human body," the report notes.
"We propose that the ACC change its label of these compounds from 'peptides and hormones' to 'anabolic agents', to remove any confusion between protein/peptide ingestion and risks for violating ASADA regulations."
Professor Jon Buckley, Director of the Nutritional Physiology Research Centre at the University of South Australia, says a distinction must be made between the peptides that are banned in sport and other legal forms.
"Some peptides elicit biological effects and are banned for use in sports, but peptides can occur through the partial digestion of proteins by various processes, for example peptides occure in yogurt due to the fermentation of dairy protein, and the consumption of these latter peptides is not banned," he says.
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