Detection of anabolic and androgenic steroids and/or their esters in horse hair using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry

Abstract

Anabolic and androgenic steroids (AASs) are a class of prohibited substances banned in horseracing at all times. The common approach for controlling the misuse of AASs in equine sports is by detecting the presence of AASs and/or their metabolites in urine and blood samples using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). This approach, however, often falls short as the duration of effect for many AASs are longer than their detection time in both urine and blood. As a result, there is a high risk that such AASs could escape detection in their official race-day samples although they may have been used during the long period of training. Hair analysis, on the other hand, can afford significantly longer detection windows. In addition, the identification of synthetic ester derivatives of AASs in hair, particularly for the endogenous ones, can provide unequivocal proof of their exogenous origin. This paper describes the development of a sensitive method (at sub to low parts-per-billion or ppb levels) for detecting 48 AASs and/or their esters in horse hair using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS). Decontaminated horse hair was pulverised and subjected to in-situ liquid-liquid extraction in a mixture of hexane - ethyl acetate (7:3, v/v) and phosphate buffer (0.1M, pH 9.5), followed by additional clean-up using mixed-mode solid-phase extraction. The final extract was analysed using UHPLC-HRMS in the positive electrospray ionisation (ESI) mode with both full scan and parallel reaction monitoring (PRM). This method was validated for qualitative identification purposes. Validation data, including method specificity, method sensitivity, extraction recovery, method precision and matrix effect are presented. Method applicability was demonstrated by the successful detection and confirmation of testosterone propionate in a referee hair sample. To our knowledge, this was the first report of a comprehensive screening method for detecting as many as 48 AASs and/or their esters in horse hair. Moreover, retrospective analysis of non-targeted AASs and/or their esters was made feasible by re-examining the full scan UHPLC-HRMS data acquired.

Keywords: Androgenic and anabolic steroids (AASs); Doping control; Esters; High resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS); Horse hair.