Development of the method for determining Methandienone in Toxicology and doping-analysis

Anabolic-androgenic steroids are ones of the most frequently detected drugs in amateur and professional sports. Doping control laboratories have developed numerous assays enabling the determination of administered drugs. However, it is relevant today to improve detection methods that are accurate, fast and require small amounts of reagents. The identification and quantification of methandienone from body fluids has been insufficiently developed. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method for the determination of methandienone traces in body fluids was developed and validated in the toxicology laboratory in order to control a non-medical use of an anabolic steroid-methandienone. Extracting procedures were optimized in order to obtain entire amount of the drug and methandienone and its metabolites were determined by sensitive and specific reactions for the compound identification, as well as the system for carrying out the TLC method have been proposed, and conditions for identifying a test sample from the biomaterial by IR spectrophotometry have been selected. The GC-MS method is found to be simple, fast, sensitive, and the strategy proposed can be effortlessly and advantageously applied for the routine analysis of biological fluids for determining methandienone and its metabolites at a level less than 30 ng in toxicology and doping-analysis.

The Attitude of High-Class Athletes to Doping in Sports and Measures to Counter It

The subject of the study is the attitude of high-class athletes to doping in sports and measures to counter it. The methodology of the work consists in the application of a set of techniques and methods that made it possible to use an integrated approach to the research. The results of the study are systematized data on attitudes towards and awareness of doping, analysis of the prevalence of information about doping in sports, identification of causes, consequences and determination of methods to combat it based on the data of surveys of high-class athletes for the period from 2019 to 2021. The scope of application of the research results affects the sports of the Russian Federation. The novelty of the study lies in the assessment of the state and potential of doping in sports in Russia over the course of 3 years. According to the results of the study, the main trends of athletes opinions about doping were identified, revealing the possibilities of improving the fight against doping in sports, which will ultimately contribute to improving the anti-doping culture in the country.

Dried blood spots in doping analysis

A series of dried blood spot (DBS) detection methods for doping agents have been developed in the last two decades. The DBS technique minimizes invasiveness and reduces storage and shipping costs. Recently, the World Anti-Doping Agency announced the use of DBS for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games owing to the advantages of the DBS application in routine doping control. Therefore the further development of detection methods for doping agents in DBS is important and urgent. This review summarizes five aspects of DBS application in doping analysis: sample collection, storage conditions, pretreatment, instrumentation and validation according to the Prohibited List issued by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and proposes some suggestions for future studies of DBS in doping analysis.