The approach of microRNA expression analysis in the detection of autologous blood transfusion in doping control

Blood transfusion (BT) as blood doping practice is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and can be abused by cheating athletes to increase the rate of oxygen transport to tissues with the aim to improve sport performance. At present, a method for the detection of Homologous Blood Transfusion (HBT) has been implemented by the WADA accredited antidoping laboratories worldwide, while no internationally recognized method has been finalized so far for the direct detection of autologous blood transfusions (ABT), which can at present be only detected indirectly by targeting longitudinal profiling of key hematological parameters. In this perspective, several researches approaching different fields are underway to find reliable biomarkers to be suitable in the development of a method to directly detect autologous blood transfusion.