Repoxygen

Repoxygen ™ is the brand name for a type of gene therapy in mice at low oxygen concentration causes a controlled production of erythropoietin ( EPO). Repoxygen developed by Oxford Biomedica for the treatment of anemia. It is still in pre-clinical studies and has not been tested on a large scale in humans.

Repoxygen was designed as a gene therapy viral vector, which brings the human EPO gene under the control of a so-called hypoxia - control element ( HRE). The HRE can presumably perceive a reduced oxygen concentration, and then turn on the EPO gene. Repoxygen is administered by injection into muscle tissue, there to induce the synthesis of EPO. Physiologically, EPO is produced in the kidneys.

Doping

Athletes could use Repoxygen to increase the number of red blood cells. Due to its self -regulatory properties, it would most likely not currently possible to detect Repoxygen in a doping test. The use of Repoxygen for doping purposes is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Code world.

The German track coach Thomas Springstein is currently suspected to have used Repoxygen for gene doping.