Mass spectrometry determination of seized oil-based anabolic-androgenic steroids products

• Published in: Forensic science international Vol. 328; p. 111012
• Main Authors: Coimbra, Masurquede A., Barbosa, Fábio S., Scheid, Camila, Macedo, Sandra M.D., Yonamine, Mauricio, Merib, Josias O., Oliveira, Tiago F., Eller, Sarah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier B.V 01-11-2021; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: AAS; Acetonitrile; Acetonitriles; Anabolic steroids; Centroids; Chromatography; Counterfeiting; Drugs; Esters; Forensic sciences; Health risks; Mass Spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Optimization; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Pharmaceuticals; Principal component analysis; Principal components analysis; Public health; Regression analysis; Sample preparation; Scientific imaging; Seized products; Seizing; Software; Solvents; Spectroscopy; Statistical methods; Steroid hormones; Steroids; Testosterone; Testosterone Congeners - chemistry; Trenbolone; UHPLC-MS/MS; Variance analysis; Water; United States > US; Japan; AAS; UHPLC-MS/MS; Seized products; Principal component analysis
• ISSN: 0379-0738; 1872-6283
• DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.111012

•Mass spectrometry approach to characterize seized steroids.•Use of multivariate analysis to investigate the profile of seized samples.•The most found drugs were testosterone and its esters, methandienone and trenbolone.
The presence of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) in illegal commercial products has been pointed as a global threat for public health. Due the correlation with adverse toxicological effects, there is a growing interest in the implementation of straightforward methods for the determination of AAS in seized products. This work exploited the development of a mass spectrometry approach to characterize the illegal oil formulations containing AAS.
The optimization of sample preparation was performed through a simplex-centroid design and the best condition was described as follow: an aliquot of 5 μL of sample were added with 995 μL of acetonitrile and water (75:25, v/v). The solution was vortexed and centrifuged. After that, 10 μL of supernatant were added with 35 μL of acetonitrile and water and internal standard (testosterone-d3, 1.25 ng). An aliquot of 5 μL was injected into the analytical system.
The method developed was validated and successfully applied in 115 seized samples. Testosterone and its esters had the highest incidence, found in more than 50% of the samples. Besides that, drugs such as boldenone, methandienone, and trenbolone have also been found, where the low quality of the samples was evidenced by the wide variation in the concentration of the drugs, always quantified in sub-doses. Finally, at least one AAS was detected in each sample analyzed. The statistical results were grouped by principal components analysis, to better understand the profile of the seized samples.
This work successfully established a fast and simple method for determination of AAS and can be applied to verify the profile of seized samples.