Screening for Two Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry in Doping Control Analysis

Abstract

Selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) have become a major field of clinical research enabling the tissue-selective stimulation of androgen receptors. The treatment of debilitating diseases, osteoporosis and frailty are primary goals and promising results have been obtained from clinical trials. However, the potential for misuse of SARMs in sport is great and drug testing methods based on liquid chromatography were established for different classes including arylpropionamide-, 2-quinolinone- and bicyclic hydantoin-derived compounds. As gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS) are still important analytical tools in sports drug testing, a method to determine 2-quinolinone- and bicyclic hydantoin-derived SARMs established. Spiked urine samples were subjected to routine doping control protocols including enzymatic hydrolysis, liquid–liquid extraction, concentration and derivatisation to trimethylsilylated analogues followed by GC-MS analysis. The method was validated for the items specificity, lower limit of detection (0.2–10 ng mL−1), recovery (83–85%), intraday and interday precision (9–15% and 13–18%, respectively), which demonstrates the suitability of conventional GC-MS systems to determine representatives of an emerging class of compounds in doping control specimens.