Quantification of 17 Endogenous and Exogenous Steroidal Hormones in Equine and Bovine Blood for Doping Control with UHPLC-MS/MS

Analytical advances in horseracing medication and doping control from 2018 to 2023

The analytical approaches taken by laboratories to implement robust and efficient regulation of horseracing medication and doping control are complex and constantly evolving. Each laboratory's approach will be dictated by differences in regulatory, economic and scientific drivers specific to their local environment. However, in general, laboratories will all be undertaking developments and improvements to their screening strategies in order to meet new and emerging threats as well as provide improved service to their customers. In this paper, the published analytical advances in horseracing medication and doping control since the 22nd International Conference of Racing Analysts and Veterinarians will be reviewed. Due to the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on the worldwide economy, the normal 2-year period of this review was extended to over 5 years. As such, there was considerable ground to cover, resulting in an increase in the number of relevant publications included from 107 to 307. Major trends in publications will be summarised and possible future directions highlighted. This will cover developments in the detection of 'small' and 'large' molecule drugs, sample preparation procedures and the use of alternative matrices, instrumental advances/applications, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, the detection and prevalence of 'endogenous' compounds and biomarker and OMICs approaches. Particular emphasis will be given to research into the potential threat of gene doping, which is a significant area of new and continued research for many laboratories. Furthermore, developments in analytical instrumentation relevant to equine medication and doping control will be discussed.

Metabolomics in clinical and forensic toxicology, sports anti-doping and veterinary residues

Metabolomics is a multidisciplinary field providing workflows for complementary approaches to conventional analytical determinations. It allows for the study of metabolically related groups of compounds or even the study of novel pathways within the biological system. The procedural stages of metabolomics; experimental design, sample preparation, analytical determinations, data processing and statistical analysis, compound identification and validation strategies are explored in this review. The selected approach will depend on the type of study being conducted. Experimental design influences the whole metabolomics workflow and thus needs to be properly assessed to ensure sufficient sample size, minimal introduced and biological variation and appropriate statistical power. Sample preparation needs to be simple, yet potentially global in order to detect as many compounds as possible. Analytical determinations need to be optimised either for the list of targeted compounds or a universal approach. Data processing and statistical analysis approaches vary widely and need to be better harmonised for review and interpretation. This includes validation strategies that are currently deficient in many presented workflows. Common compound identification approaches have been explored in this review. Metabolomics applications are discussed for clinical and forensic toxicology, human and equine sports anti-doping and veterinary residues.