New Insights Into Metandienone Metabolism by Untargeted Gas Chromatography-High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Metabolomics
• Forensic Toxicology

Background:

• Traditional methods for identifying metandienone (MD) metabolites are resource-intensive.
• An untargeted approach using high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) offers a more efficient alternative.
• This study explores HRMS and multivariate statistics for comprehensive exposure marker identification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the utility of an untargeted HRMS approach for identifying metandienone (MD) exposure markers.
• To reduce the time and resources required for metabolite identification compared to traditional methods.
• To develop an efficient analytical strategy for comprehensive metabolic profiling.

Main Methods:

• Urine samples from volunteers were analyzed using GC-HRMS.
• Multivariate statistical analysis, including OPLS-DA, was applied to categorize samples.
• Feature extraction and data preprocessing were performed to identify key biomarkers.

Main Results:

• Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) effectively differentiated sample conditions.
• Nine key features linked to metandienone consumption were identified as potential biomarkers.
• Metabolite identities were confirmed by mass spectra matching.

Conclusions:

• The untargeted HRMS approach successfully identifies principal metandienone (MD) metabolites.
• This method enables simultaneous identification of known and potentially novel metabolic markers.
• The analytical strategy improves efficiency, offering a comprehensive metabolic profile.