Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 23 Question: Revealing China's participation in the research and development of new anti-doping technology-dry blood test
Xinhua News Agency reporter Ma Xiangfei
The Beijing Winter Olympics came to a successful conclusion, and the highly potential new doping test method "Dry Blood Spot" also successfully completed its official appearance in the Olympic Games.
Because of its convenience, economy and other advantages, this technology has attracted attention since its birth, and China has participated in the whole process of technology and equipment research and development and has become the first country to officially use it.
Recently, the China Anti-Doping Center revealed the process of research and development of this technology to a reporter from Xinhua News Agency.
Revolutionary new technology unveiled
One of the highlights of this Winter Olympics doping testing work is that for the first time, dried blood spot testing is used as a routine testing method for doping.
At the Tokyo Olympics last year, the dried blood spot technology was experimentally applied, and at the Beijing Winter Olympics, the dried blood spot test was officially unveiled.
The new technology is to take a very small amount of peripheral blood from athletes and put it on test strips to test for banned substances, a process similar to finger blood in a hospital.
Compared with traditional blood tests, the dried blood spot technology has minimal harm to athletes, easier transportation and storage of samples, and better stability of samples.
Chen Zhiyu, director of the China Anti-Doping Center, said that dried blood spots are an innovative and revolutionary detection method.
In preparation for the Tokyo Olympics last year, China conducted more than 400 tests of dried blood spots, and the subsequent National Games was the world's first comprehensive large-scale event to officially use dried blood spot technology.
More than 300 dry blood spot checks were performed during the preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
China participates in the whole process of research and development
Chen Zhiyu said that China Anti-Doping Center is one of the initiators of this technology. Since 2019, it has cooperated with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the International Inspection Agency (ITA), etc. Participate in the research of project rules and methods, especially the research and development of doping testing equipment for dried blood spots.
This is the first time that my country has participated in an innovative project in the field of anti-doping in an all-round way. The center participates in all aspects of rule formulation, inspection requirements, testing technology and equipment research and development to ensure that this technology will be implemented in China as soon as possible.
Dried blood spots are not unfamiliar to the public as a common blood sample processing method in medical treatment. However, as a new type of doping inspection and detection method, there are problems that need to be overcome in the detection method and inspection equipment.
In order to overcome the above problems, the global anti-doping dry blood spot project was officially launched in March 2019. China has a leadership team, a sample collection and delivery working group, a sample testing and storage working group, and all four groups of the special advisory group. serve.
Wen Hongtao, deputy director of the central inspection office, is one of the members of the R&D team.
Wen Hongtao said that in order to ensure that the equipment can be used in the Beijing Winter Olympics on time, the center cooperated with the project team to formulate technical documents for dry blood spot inspection.
In May 2021, the dried blood spot test method of Beijing National Doping Control Laboratory passed the review.
The new method can directly detect testosterone ester banned substances from dried blood spots, which is a direct detection method with the characteristics of rapidity, sensitivity and high efficiency.
After passing the test and certification, the next difficulty is to produce equipment that meets the requirements of technical documents.
Wen Hongtao introduced that the two major difficulties of dried blood spot inspection equipment are the quantitative collection of samples and the anti-tampering device.
To this end, the center specially set up a domestic dry blood spot project team, which developed the first-generation equipment in just one month, and used it in the doping monitoring of the Chinese sports delegation in the Tokyo Olympics, the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Shaanxi National Games.
"This is of great practical significance for my Chinese sports delegation to participate in the Tokyo Olympics and the Beijing Winter Olympics in a clean way," he said.
The project team did not stop at the first generation of equipment.
With the attitude of keeping improving, they cooperated with a team of experts in the field of microfluidic chip technology from Zhejiang University to develop a more intelligent dried blood spot inspection device - dried blood spot scallop chip.
The center also cooperated with Sinopharm Group China Medical Equipment Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Aotai Medical Technology and other units to develop a new tamper-proof box.
New technology has a bright future
As soon as the dried blood spot technology was born, it has attracted attention from all parties, and its development potential is also very optimistic.
WADA President Witold Banka has repeatedly emphasized that dried blood spots are an exciting technological development in the anti-doping fight and a powerful complement to traditional screening methods.
Rabin, director of WADA's science department, once said: "This technology is an extremely important step in anti-doping work. In the future, it will not only expand the inspection area, but also better detect certain existing substances as well as new substances."
Wen Hongtao believes that the current dry blood spot method is still in the development stage, and the individual detection methods of some national laboratories have just passed the certification, and it is still too early to replace the traditional blood test, but he believes that the future development space is very large.
Chen Zhiyu said that the application of the dried blood spot method in the field of anti-doping has brought about a revolutionary change from "sampling inspection" to "general inspection", from "waiting for inspection" to "instant inspection".
As a major sports country, my country has a large sports population. As a revolutionary breakthrough, dried blood spots will increase the coverage of inspections in a more convenient and inexpensive way, which will greatly improve the effectiveness and deterrence of inspections and maintain the purity of sports.