Gold nanostars-driven SERS biosensors for fingerprinting detection and quantitative profiling of anabolic steroids

Anabolic agents, synthetic derivatives of androgenic hormones, promote protein synthesis while inhibiting degradation, thereby enhancing muscle mass and strength. These properties drive their illicit use as performance-enhancing drugs in sports, despite severe health risks including dependency and life-threatening pathologies. Consequently, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibits their use. This study presents a highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) detection platform utilizing gold nanostars (GNS) for identifying four anabolic agents. Synthesized via a seed-mediated growth method, the GNS substrate exploits its multibranched morphology to generate localized electromagnetic field amplification, achieving exceptional SERS enhancement. Detection limits reached 4.47 × 10^-8 M for nandrolone, 7.59 × 10^-8 M for trenbolone, 8.71 × 10^-8 M for methandrostenolone, and 1.55 × 10^-7 M for stanozolol, marking a 10- to 100-fold sensitivity improvement over conventional methods. The label-free, rapid analysis capability of this GNS-SERS platform underscores its potential for anti-doping enforcement and clinical toxicology applications.