FG-4592 - those tricky dopers...

[Louis]

http://nyti.ms/1I2QcuS


From NYT article:

Recent positive drug tests by two cyclists suggest there is a new, cutting-edge substance making its way to athletes looking for performance-enhancement: FG-4592, an experimental drug that increases production of red blood cells but has not been approved for human consumption.

Athletes have long found surreptitious means of obtaining banned performance-enhancing drugs, but with FG-4592, there actually may be a far more straightforward way simply by ordering it from chemical-supply companies online.

And that, said Don Catlin, an expert on testing for banned substances, is something new. Athletes have gotten banned drugs from websites in China, he said, but what they receive is not always what they tried to order. The companies selling FG-4592 are not marketing it to athletes or individuals who want to take it; they emphasize that what they are selling is a chemical that is intended only for researchers.

But according to Catlin, a consultant on drug testing and former director of the U.C.L.A. lab that performs drug tests for the Olympics, that may not stop a determined athlete.

What's amazing to me is that it is out there for sale on the Internet, Catlin said. This is in contrast with similar performance-enhancers such as erythropoietin, which likewise increases red cell production.

One of the cyclists accused of taking FG-4592, Fabio Taborre of Italy, was provisionally suspended on Monday after testing positive. The other, Carlos Oyarzun of Chile, was expelled from this month's Pan American Games for the same reason.

[Shortsocks]

FG-4592? It Just sounds cooler than EPO.

[54ny77]

Can I get it at Home Depot?

[dpk501]

FG-4592? It Just sounds cooler than EPO.

Wait...isn't that the latest shimano cassette? HA

[stephenmarklay]

Somehow I am not surprised. The entire thing is sketchy.

Getting bathtub drugs from China. Great.

[54ny77]

Why isn't China a powerhouse country in cycling? Is it just not popular there?

Serious question. Gazillion people, and they are a powerhouse in so many other olympic sports.

Somehow I am not surprised. The entire thing is sketchy.

Getting bathtub drugs from China. Great.

[Louis]

Why isn't China a powerhouse country in cycling?

They may well be in % of the population that rides.

[oldpotatoe]

MedChemExpress...in NewJersey...$55 bang.

Maybe I'll try it for Tuesday night world championships:eek:

[Shortsocks]

MedChemExpress...in NewJersey...$55 bang.

Maybe I'll try it for Tuesday night world championships:eek:

I see a Group Buy in the future. Potatoe, care to start the GB thread, or should you include some with every wheelset you make. Like a Doping incentive? Eh eh?

[Wolfman]

Thanks for posting this... I was wondering what the medication/dope was this time around.

[oldpotatoe]

I see a Group Buy in the future. Potatoe, care to start the GB thread, or should you include some with every wheelset you make. Like a Doping incentive? Eh eh?

Interesting one 'version' with DMSO..when I was running in the late 70s, early 80s, that was the 'rage'. Made ya smell like you just slammed a family sized garlic pizza..all the time.

[Joachim]

Interesting one 'version' with DMSO..when I was running in the late 70s, early 80s, that was the 'rage'. Made ya smell like you just slammed a family sized garlic pizza..all the time.

That's what we use to solubilize, water insoluble drugs with. Not something I would like as a solubilizing vehicle all the time. It's better to avoid dmso, solubilize it in sodium hydroxide and then ph it back down to 7.4. They probably used it IV. That smell is the sulfur group in dmso.

[oldpotatoe]

That's what we use to solubilize, water insoluble drugs with. Not something I would like as a solubilizing vehicle all the time. It's better to avoid dmso, solubilize it in sodium hydroxide and then ph it back down to 7.4. They probably used it IV. That smell is the sulfur group in dmso.

Isn't DMSO some sort of horse salve or something?

[tiretrax]

Isn't DMSO some sort of horse salve or something?

Yes. I think it was outlawed for use by race horses. It was promoted as the wonder treatment for bad knees in the '80's. IIRC, FDA testing was inclusive for improvements and showed negative long term health effects.

[Idris Icabod]

Isn't DMSO some sort of horse salve or something?

I think the DMSO stock solution would be to put directly into a screening collection. When you are dealing with comounds collections of a million+ you need a way to quickly pipette to test against different targets. DMSO is a good solvent as MOST things are soluble in it and are diluted down into aqueous buffers for the biological testing. For that cost you are getting less than 1 mg of compound!

The shipping to research establishments I assume is to skirt patent law, if a patented compound is used for research it can fall into a safe harbour against infringement, the harbour isn't as wide as people imply, probably doesn't include dodgy cyclists looking to ingest!

DMSO by the way is dimethyl sulfoxide, it doesn't smell bad (IMHO but I'm an organic pharma chemist and after so many years smelling solvents my opinion may be a little whacked) and is high boiling and not very volatile but I've been in a lab where they were transfering thousands of compounds and you start to taste it after a while.

[Avincent52]

Does this surprise anyone? Let's remember that most athletes--like Mr. Armstrong--don't fail tests, but get sloppy with a) relationships --screwing over someone with dirt on them b) the evidence. Getting caught with the physical evidence.
And we're not even talking about gene doping.

The instant suspicion aroused by every rider who turns in a good race is killing the sport just as surely as any of the substances themselves.

[Joachim]

I think the DMSO stock solution would be to put directly into a screening collection. When you are dealing with comounds collections of a million+ you need a way to quickly pipette to test against different targets. DMSO is a good solvent as MOST things are soluble in it and are diluted down into aqueous buffers for the biological testing. For that cost you are getting less than 1 mg of compound!

The shipping to research establishments I assume is to skirt patent law, if a patented compound is used for research it can fall into a safe harbour against infringement, the harbour isn't as wide as people imply, probably doesn't include dodgy cyclists looking to ingest!

DMSO by the way is dimethyl sulfoxide, it doesn't smell bad (IMHO but I'm an organic pharma chemist and after so many years smelling solvents my opinion may be a little whacked) and is high boiling and not very volatile but I've been in a lab where they were transfering thousands of compounds and you start to taste it after a while.

you taste it because it can enter the body via transdermal delivery. So you touch it and taste it. Have you ever seen control animals being injected with DMSO? They definitely do not look the same compared to using saline or PBS. In in vivo work we try to avoid DMSO as much as possible, even though its considered non-toxic. And yes, it smells like garlic, but nothing like boiling BME or the smell of SO2.

[Idris Icabod]

nothing like boiling BME or the smell of SO2.

I just bubbled H2S through a solution of a compound! Despite a very efficient hood, I am not very popular right now!