Improving the insight of in situ formation of specific substances with a steroid structure

Code: 21C08XT

WADA drew the attention of the Laboratories to the possible detection of some anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) and/or hormone and aromatase inhibitors in urine samples resulting from

the in situ microbial transformations of endogenous steroids in its Technical Letter TL20. The document establishes some requirements to verify if the findings could originate from microbial activity when the involved compounds are detected at concentrations below the MRPL. However there not enough scientific evidences or literature data to support this. The overall objective of the current project is to produce evidences to better support the actions to be taken when detecting 1-ene steroids metabolites, 7-oxo-steroids or 2- & 3-ene-steroids in human urine at low concentrations and to disclose the origin of these metabolites (external administration or produced by microbial contamination) as expected following WADA TL20. To reach the objectives the project intends to confirm specific metabolites for the 1-ene-5a-reduced steroids not originated from microbial contamination, produce specific metabolites of arimistane and 7-keto-DHEA, study the specificity of Δ1-steroid dehydrogenase over different substrates and finally study the formation of delta-2 (5a-androstane-2-en-17-one) metabolites excretion and their stability in human urine. This should allow a better evaluation of data produced by the WADA accredited Laboratories.