Scientists find new test for drug cheats

DOPING in sport could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to scientific research.

Researchers at Dundee University are developing a test which distinguishes testosterone, which occurs naturally in the body, from anabolic steroids, the pharmaceutically manufactured strain of testosterone.

The discovery could make it easier to catch drugs cheats in sport, such as Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson who tested positive for steroids after winning 100m gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

The test works by identifying crucial differences between animal steroids produced in the body and plant steroids, used by pharmaceutical companies to make the drugs.

Professor Mike Rennie, who is leading the research team, said yesterday that the distinction was relatively simple to detect.

"Plants and animals have different ways of making steroids," he said. "Both set of steroids are marked with a distinctive 'signature'.

"We are developing a method using a sensitive mass spectrometer which can distinguish between the natural signatures carried by the carbon and hydrogen atoms in normal bodily testosterone and the testosterone which is made from plant material."