Detection of Oral-Turinabol Metabolites by LC/MS Q-TOF Authors

Oral-Turinabol, dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (DHCMT), is a synthetic anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS) prohibited in sports by the World Anti-Doping Agency. We used accurate-mass measurements by liquid chromatography coupled to a quadrupole time-of-flight (LC/MS Q-TOF) system to investigate DHCMT metabolites. Nine potential biomarkers of Oral-Turinabol consumption, including glucuronide-conjugated and unconjugated compounds, were detected and tentatively identified after weak basic liquid-liquid extraction of post administration urine samples, with no previous hydrolysis step. Chromatographic peaks for the metabolites were found by using the theoretical accurate mass of the corresponding [M-H]– ion as the target in full-scan experiments. Subsequent analyses in targeted MS/MS mode obtained more structural information for the compounds of interest. Hydroxylation of the parent steroid in one or more positions seemed to be the most common metabolic pathway. In these preliminary experiments, some of the metabolites were detected more than one week after intake. According to our bibliographic search, no previous studies on the detection of Oral-Turinabol consumption by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry have been reported. Results obtained from this work will be incorporated in the regular screening method of our laboratory using a liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole system and new detection windows will be established to detect DHCMT administration.