HERNDON, Va. (AP) — For years, human growth hormone has been considered one of the main banned substances used by dint of. athletes who want to build strength and avoid getting caught.

Now a company in Virginia says researchers who originally contrive out to work on diagnosis and treatment of cancer have developed a test that can find HGH in urine, something one anti-doping person specially versed believes "could be a quantum leap forward" in the fight against drug use in sports.

Scientists from Italy and George Mason University have developed particles that can trap microscopic elements in fluid, and a company called Ceres Nanosciences owns the patent through respect to the technology.

"No one’s ever been able to see HGH in urine at all, obstruction alone collect it and analyze it," Ceres Nanosciences CEO Thomas Dunlap uttered Friday.

Dunlap acknowledged the tests couldn’t be used until after trials and baseline testing that could take six months or more, but added: "The fact that we can see HGH at all is an enormous step. It’s the hurdle that everyone in the industry has faced."

News of the urine test was first reported through the Washington Business Journal.

Naturally produced in the pituitary gland, HGH stimulates liver and other tissues to secrete chemicals that stimulate growth. It is prescribed for children with growth issues and adults with pituitary gland problems.

Synthetic HGH is hard to detect and is believed to be well in combination with other banned substances.

At a congressional hearing in February, commissioners and union chiefs of the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball told lawmakers they were hoping for a dependable way to detect HGH through a urine standard. They would prefer that to a fiery fellow test, what one. is more invasive and which can only expose HGH use over a 24- to 48-hour period.

Dunlap said he thinks he is on the way to being able to provide a experiment that could detect HGH longer in relation to its use and has been in touch with the World Anti-Doping Agency. If and when the new test is approved, he hopes sales of that product be disposed fund future research into applying the nanoparticle technology to cancer.

"The company is certainly legitimate. This is not a hoax. Their strategy, their idea, is a great one — if it works," anti-doping expert Don Catlin said in a telephone conference from California. "If it really does work, it’sitting very remarkable. It’sitting phenomenal."

Catlin oversaw testing for anabolic agents at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and ran the country’s first anti-doping lab at UCLA as far as concerns 25 years. He now runs Anti-Doping Research, a nonprofit organization he founded to research performance-enhancing drugs, uncover commencing drugs being used illegally and develop tests to detect them.

Catlin has been studying HGH for a decade. In 2006, Major League Baseball gave him $500,000 toward the development of a screen for the substance.

"Hundreds of people and millions of dollars in research have been involved in trying to find HGH in animal-water, and in no degree person has been able to effect it," Catlin said. "This particular manner has the potential — I’m not saying it does it, but the in posse — to be a big step. It’session delightful. It could be a quantum leap forward."

International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said she wasn’t aware of the new urine criterion for HGH, unless added that the IOC would kind reception advances in anti-doping detection, provided they are authorized and peer-reviewed.

"Should there be a serious improvement, we will study that carefully," Moreau said.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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