Wolfgang Bornatsch

Use of an electrochemically synthesised metabolite of a selective androgen receptor modulator for mass spectrometry-based sports drug testing.

The elucidation of the metabolism of new therapeutics is a major task for pharmaceutical companies and of great interest for drug testing laboratories. The latter in particular need to determine the presence or absence of drugs or their metabolic products in urine to test for a misuse of these compounds. Commonly, in vitro or animal models are used to mimic the human metabolism and produce potential targets in amounts allowing for method development. An alternative route based on electrochemical reactions of drugs was reported to allow for the generation of selected metabolites. The utility of this approach for doping control purposes was demonstrated with a novel class of anabolic agents termed selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs). An arylpropionamide-derived drug candidate was subjected to electrochemical “metabolism” and a major phase-I-metabolite, resulting from the elimination of a substituted phenol residue as identified in in vitro experiments, was generated and characterised using liquid chromatography/nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and high resolution/high accuracy mass spectrometry. The metabolite was included in routine doping control procedures based on liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry and has served as a reference compound for 5000 doping control specimens.

Development of liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry‐based analytical assays for the determination of HIF stabilizers in preventive doping research

Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) stabilizers increase blood haemoglobin levels after oral administration and their use in sports was recently banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. For the support of analytical assay development, the metabolic fate of two model HIF stabilizers, based on the isoquinoline-3-carboxamide scaffold of the lead drug candidate FG-2216, was assessed by in vitro methods. The analytes were identified and characterized by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in positive and negative ionization mode using an API 4000 Qtrap as well as an exactive high resolution-high accuracy MS. The model HIF stabilizer N-[(1-chloro-4-hydroxy-7-isopropoxy-isoquinolin-3-carbonyl)-amino]-acetic acid (1), was converted into 3 major phase I metabolites by hydroxylation, dealkylation, and dehydrogenation. The structures of the hydroxylated and the dealkylated metabolites were confirmed by LC-coupled nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Moreover, glucuronic acid conjugates of the active drug and one of the dealkylated phase I metabolite were identified. Hydroxylation of model compound 2 (N-[(1-chloro-4-hydroxy-isoquinolin-3-carbonyl)-amino]-acetic acid) yielded two metabolites, regioisomeric to the dealkylated product of 1. Mass spectral data of compounds 1 and 2, as well as a structure-related analogue were included into a multi-target analytical assay based on direct injection and LC-MS/MS analysis of human urine. The method was validated for quantitative purposes. In an approach of preventive doping research, more comprehensive screening methods applying precursor ion (m/z 166) and neutral loss (-10 Da) scans were developed, allowing for the detection of unknown metabolites and structurally analogous HIF stabilizers emerging from ongoing lead structure developments.