INTERVIEW WITH LAURA MERCOLINI
“ From my point of view, any biofluid is potentially suitable to be microsampled. ”
Q
You recently also began applying microsampling in sports drug testing, could you briefly describe this research and what encouraged you to apply microsampling in this study?
In recent years, a few timid attempts have been made by the scientific community to propose alternative biological matrices for antidoping purposes. However, the vast majority of sports drug testing is still based predominantly on reference methods involving the use of large volumes of biological fluids (mainly urine), with some disadvantages in terms of sample handling, compound stability, analysis time and costs. For this reason, it was decided to tackle this issue by developing, validating and comparing a series of innovative microsampling approaches, in fluid and dried samples, to be applied for the monitoring of athletes both in- and out-of-competition, both at professional and amateur level.
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Our recent work is carried out within a project supported by the Section for the supervision and control of doping and for the protection of health in sport, part of the Italian Ministry of Health’s Technical Committee. It was also a study carried out in strict collaboration with Neoteryx®. The idea was to test the Mitra™ device, marketed for accurate whole blood microsampling, also on other biomatrices such as plasma, urine and oral fluid. I can say it worked flawlessly!
With a look to applied research focused on microsampling, with the aim of designing sound and solid sampling and pretreatment protocols, the combination of such collaborative intents has paved the way for this fascinating and promising work.
Q
You are a member of the collaborative network of the Section for the supervision and control of doping and for the protection of health in sport of the Italian Ministry of Health’s Technical Committee, how do you think the application of microsampling will have an impact on sports drug testing?
When I approached the concept of accurate microsampling, I immediately envisaged potential applications for sports drug testing, where in situ sampling and the ability to store and transport the samples at room temperature could really be a turning point in athlete monitoring. Moreover, more feasible and high-throughput methods could lead to a growth of anti-doping controls worldwide. These factors could lay the foundation for expanding and refining the anti-doping analysis and the safeguard of the athletes themselves.
Q
Microsampling application has been mainly emphasized in blood; do you think microsampling has the potential to work equally successfully in other
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