Interest of HRMS systems in analytical toxicology: Focus on doping products

Performance and image enhancing drugs are misused by top athletes, young people and amateurs like bodybuilders. Their misuses lead to adverse analytical findings in sport but also physical and mental health risks. Anti-doping laboratories must set up analytical strategies and develop precise, robust and sensitive methods to detect all analytes prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). In recent years, high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) systems have emerged and are gradually replacing more traditional systems for screening and quantification. The targeted compounds in this review are the drugs prohibited by the WADA in-and out-of competition and glucocorticoids. Advanced technologies were applied for anti-doping, forensic and clinical purposes. The contribution of HRMS in the analysis of doping products allows a retrospective analysis to detect new metabolites in order to increase the detection windows and to identify new synthetic products. These systems are also used for new applications like study of metabolomics, characterisation of metabolites and applications in alternative matrices (hair, dried blood spots). Moreover, the misuses of these substances lead the consumers to purchase on the black market.