Abstract

The use of peptide hormones for performance enhancement is documented by positive doping control samples with e.g. human chorionic gonadotropin or erythropoietin and by confession of athletes or confiscation of peptide hormone products. With the development of doping control methods, dopers start searching for manipulation and masking strategies to circumvent the detection of prohibited substances in urine samples. One way to eliminate peptide hormones from doping control samples is the use of proteases that degrade all proteins in urine and beside the proteolytic activity usually also autolyse. A method was established and validated to detect proteases and their degradation products in urine by SDS-PAGE as a screening procedure and LC-MS(/MS) for confirmation and for identifying a specific protease m the sample. Two doping control urine samples were shown to be positive for bacillolysin and four seized products for bacillolysin, subtilisin and aspergillopepsin. Verf.-Referat