An Overview of Doping in Sports

Abstract

The history of doping field can be outlined in three major stages: (1) early stage in which drug abuse took place during sports performance and competition and gas chromatography was used for its detection; (2) approximately in the 1970s when androgenic anabolic steroids were introduced; (3) In the recent era when the fields of biochemistry, physiology, toxicology, genomics, genetics, immunology, and molecular biology were integrated and applied routinely. Advanced omics technology and gene doping age may be applied in near future. This review will discuss commonly abused materials, both their adverse and harmful effects, and the alleged benefits in conjunction with the current standards in doping. Five prime areas should be targeted: (1) substances misused in strength sports; (2) metabolic modulators/hormones; (3) blood doping in aerobic sports; (4) structurally diverse masking agents; and (5) gene doping.