Sports drug testing and the athletes' exposome

• Published in: Drug testing and analysis Vol. 13; no. 11-12; pp. 1814 - 1821
• Main Authors: Thevis, Mario, Kuuranne, Tiia, Fedoruk, Matthew, Geyer, Hans
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01.11.2021
• Subjects: adverse analytical finding; Athletes; contamination; doping; Doping in Sports - prevention & control; Drug Contamination - prevention & control; drug exposure; Exposome; Humans; sport; Sports; Substance Abuse Detection - methods; doping; drug exposure; adverse analytical finding; sport; contamination
• ISSN: 1942-7603; 1942-7611
• DOI: 10.1002/dta.3187

Similar to the general population, elite athletes are exposed to a complex set of environmental factors including chemicals and radiation and also biological and physical stressors, which constitute an exposome that is, unlike for the general population, subjected to specific scrutiny for athletes due to applicable antidoping regulations and associated (frequent) routine doping controls. Hence, investigations into the athlete's exposome and how to distinguish between deliberate drug use and different contamination scenarios has become a central topic of antidoping research, as a delicate balance is to be managed between the vital and continually evolving developments of sensitive analytical techniques on the one hand, and the risk of the athletes' exposome potentially causing adverse analytical findings on the other. Investigations into the athlete's exposome and how to distinguish between deliberate drug use and different contamination scenarios has become a central topic of antidoping research, and a variety of challenges need to be taken into consideration.