Dr. Lawrence R. Soma, Dr. Cornelius Uboh and Dr. Mary Robinson, researchers from the laboratories which made the major breakthrough in regard to the presence of EPO in racehorses, have turned their attention to a currently-untestable drug which has been rumoured to have found its way into the standardbred racing industry.
"At this point it's just rumours," Dr. Soma told Trot Insider. "It's (the rumours have) been from a lot of people – breeders, owners and horsemen.
"Whether or not it (the drug) is currently in the industry, if this drug eventually becomes available, you know it is going to be in the industry, so you might as well get a jump start on this stuff," Dr. Soma said. "We're (the horse racing's industry’s regulatory bodies are) always behind the eight-ball. If this drug is going to be beneficial in the human field, and will eventually be a commercial product, you know it's going to be used (in the racing industry), so you might as well get a jump start on it right away."
Dr. Soma and Dr. Robinson work in collaboration with Dr. Cornelius Uboh, director of the Pennsylvania Equine Toxicology and Research Laboratory, which is located at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. The facility has made its presence felt in the horse racing industry – particularly in the last few years, as it is where “the EPO riddle” was solved, according to Dr. Soma.
And as Dr. Soma explained to Trot Insider, they are looking to solve another riddle: the detection of Myo-inositol-trispyrophosphate, better known as ITPP, in equine.
Dr. Soma and Dr. Robinson explained that ITPP was formulated in France in 2005 and that it is being developed for legal use in humans for multiple diseases. The doctors told Trot Insider that the drug is thought to cause hemoglobin to release oxygen into the tissues at a higher rate. Therefore, if used within endurance sports, ITPP would act as a performance enhancer.
"The mechanism of how it actually works has not been really well defined,” Dr. Robinson explained. “The theory is that it binds to hemoglobin and causes the hemoglobin to release oxygen more efficiently in the tissues, but it's still a theory.” Dr. Soma added that ITPP has a unique action and that it is probably confined to the red blood cell. “We're not sure because we haven't looked at it,” he said.
Although EPO leads to increased amounts of hemoglobin in the system, ITPP modifies the hemoglobin in the red blood cell to release more oxygen as the RBC enters tissues which require oxygen. Both doctors explained that the two drugs are "totally different.” They each stated that EPO is a large, protein-based drug which weighs about 130 Daltons, while ITPP is a standard compound drug which has a small molecular weight.
After having been told by multiple horse racing sources that ITPP is being used within the industry, Dr. Soma said he and Dr. Robinson started to research ITPP. "We began to review the literature, and there is 'science' in mice, and there is some 'science' in humans about the potential medical benefits of this compound," Dr. Soma explained. Dr. Robinson said that so far (in terms of public literature) ITPP has only been administered to mice. “No studies with humans have been published yet,” she explained. “It is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials, which means that they are not necessarily looking for an effect, but just to make sure that it is safe to administer."
The pair of doctors explained to Trot Insider that they have submitted an abstract of a proposal to research the drug. "This drug may not be difficult to synthesize, but we are not sure," said Dr. Soma. The duo did explain that funding will be needed in order for the testing to go to the next level.
"What we have submitted so far is an abstract. An abstract is a brief overview of the whole plan. It's a preliminary step," Dr. Robinson explained. "On the project side of things, this compound is not commercially available. The only people that have it are the researchers who are using it. So, we have already contacted them to see if they would be interested in providing us with some of the compound so we can use it to develop a method to test for it. That is where we are in terms of the project."
Dr. Robinson explained that the initial paper which showed the synthesis of ITPP was in 2005, so the drug couldn't have been used in the industry before 2005. "The paper that actually showed that it enhances performance didn't come out until 2009," she explained. "If it is being used to enhance performance, I don't think people even knew that it could enhance performance before 2009."...
