The confirmation and control of metabolic caffeine in standardbred horses after administration of theophylline

Simultaneous Quantification of Caffeine and Its Main Metabolites by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry in Horse Urine

Caffeine is one of the naturally occurring alkaloids and it is metabolized to paraxanthine, theophylline, and theobromine. The analyses of caffeine and its metabolites are challenging since the metabolites theophylline and paraxanthine generate similar product and precursor ions. In this study, a new method was developed for simultaneous analysis of caffeine, paraxanthine, theobromine and theophylline in horse urine using Gas chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Urine samples were treated using solid phase extraction followed by the elution with dichloromethane/isopropanol (90/10) after pH was adjusted to 6, and then derivatization with MSTFA-1%TMCS before analysis by GC-MS. Sample preparation and derivatization steps were optimized and the method permitted elution all of these analytes within 13 min. The method was fully validated according to Commission Decision 2002/657/EC guidelines. The calibration curves were linear with a correlation coefficient of >0.99. Precision and accuracy were well within the 15% acceptance range and the method was robust. The validation results demonstrated that the method is highly reproducible, easily applicable and selective. The method was applied to urine samples collected from racehorses to demonstrate its applicability.

Doping detection in animals: A review of analytical methodologies published from 1990 to 2019

Despite the impressive innate physical abilities of horses, camels, greyhounds, or pigeons, doping agents might be administered to these animals to improve their performance. To control these illegal practices, anti-doping analytical methodologies have been developed. This review compiles the analytical methods that have been published for the detection of prohibited substances administered to animals involved in sports over 30 years. Relevant papers meeting the search criteria that discussed analytical methods aiming to detect and/or quantify doping substances in animal biological matrices published from 1990 to 2019 were considered. A total of 317 studies were included, of which 298 were related to horses, demonstrating significant advances toward the development of doping detection methods for equine sports. However, analytical methods for the detection of doping agents in sports involving other species are lacking. Due to enhanced accuracy and specificity, chromatographic analysis coupled to mass spectrometry detection is preferred over immunoassays. Regarding biological matrices, blood and urine remain the first choice, although alternative biological matrices, such as hair and feces, have been considered. With the increasing number and type of drugs used as doping agents, the analytes addressed in the published papers are diverse. It is very important to continue to detect and quantify these drugs, recognizing those that are most frequently used, in order to punish the abusers, protect animals' health, and ensure a healthier and genuine competition.

Systematic analysis to assess the scientific validity of the international residue limits for caffeine and theophylline in horse-racing

Based on their performance-enhancing potential, caffeine and theophylline are prohibited substances in equine sports. Residues in horses can be caused by wilful application or by unintended uptake of contaminated feed. The International Federation of Horseracing Authorities recently introduced international residue limits (IRLs) to facilitate the discrimination between pharmacological relevant and irrelevant concentrations in doping samples. The objective of this study was to investigate the scientific validity of these IRLs. A systematic analysis was performed to assess the IRLs by different statistical approaches using published pharmacokinetic data. 31 out of 218 potentially relevant publications met the inclusion criteria. Thereby, both IRLs were found to be appropriate for the exclusion of the presence of a relevant pharmacological effect after a wilful application. The IRL of theophylline was also determined to be suitable for the prevention of positive doping tests caused by the ingestion of contaminated feed. In contrast, the IRL of caffeine is not suitable to prevent positive doping test caused by the ingestion of more than 10 mg caffeine per day per horse with contaminated feed. The lack of corresponding regulation for paraxanthine, a major active metabolite of caffeine and theophylline, was recognised as a substantial shortcoming of the current system, rendering both IRLs incomplete.

Evaluation of the reproductive and developmental risks of caffeine

A risk analysis of in utero caffeine exposure is presented utilizing epidemiological studies and animal studies dealing with congenital malformation, pregnancy loss, and weight reduction. These effects are of interest to teratologists, because animal studies are useful in their evaluation. Many of the epidemiology studies did not evaluate the impact of the "pregnancy signal," which identifies healthy pregnancies and permits investigators to identify subjects with low pregnancy risks. The spontaneous abortion epidemiology studies were inconsistent and the majority did not consider the confounding introduced by not considering the pregnancy signal. The animal studies do not support the concept that caffeine is an abortafacient for the wide range of human caffeine exposures. Almost all the congenital malformation epidemiology studies were negative. Animal pharmacokinetic studies indicate that the teratogenic plasma level of caffeine has to reach or exceed 60 µg/ml, which is not attainable from ingesting large amounts of caffeine in foods and beverages. No epidemiological study described the "caffeine teratogenic syndrome." Six of the 17 recent epidemiology studies dealing with the risk of caffeine and fetal weight reduction were negative. Seven of the positive studies had growth reductions that were clinically insignificant and none of the studies cited the animal literature. Analysis of caffeine's reproductive toxicity considers reproducibility and plausibility of clinical, epidemiological, and animal data. Moderate or even high amounts of beverages and foods containing caffeine do not increase the risks of congenital malformations, miscarriage or growth retardation. Pharmacokinetic studies markedly improve the ability to perform the risk analyses.

Urinary excretion of dietary contaminants in horses

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY

Presence of drugs is completely prohibited in post racing urine samples by most of racing and competition authorities, even if environmental contamination might occur.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the daily dose of several contaminants absorbed through the diet that would result in detectable concentrations in urine.

METHODS

Caffeine, theobromine, theophylline, atropine, scopolamine, bufotenine, DMT or morphine were administered orally to 6 horses, in different dosages, for 3 days before their urine was sampled for regular anti-doping tests.

RESULTS

Theobromine, theophylline, bufotenine and morphine daily intake >10 mg, 2 mg, 10 mg and 200 microg, respectively, by a performance horse, were found to result in detectable urinary concentrations. At the 2 tested doses, atropine (5 and 15 mg) and dimethyltryptamine (3 and 10 mg) were not detected in urine. For caffeine and scopolamine, even the lowest dosage tested (5 mg/horse/day and 2 mg/horse/day respectively) induced detectable concentrations of the molecule in urine.

CONCLUSIONS

Horses fed dietary contaminants, even at level much below the effective dosage, may be positive to antidoping urine analysis. Further research is needed to gain more confident results on a daily safe intake for caffeine and scopolamine.

POTENTIAL RELEVANCE

Selection of feed materials appears to be of great importance to prevent non voluntary positive result to anti-doping tests.

Sol–gel molecular imprinted ormosil for solid-phase extraction of methylxanthines

A organically modified molecularly imprinted silica (MIS), selective for methylxanthines, was prepared using a simple sol-gel procedure. Caffeine was used as template; 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS) as functional monomer and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as reticulating agent. The material was packed on solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridges and evaluated with aqueous test samples, natural water and human urine; a quantitative method for methylxanthines in water, using SPE cartridges packed with the MIS coupled with HPLC-UV was developed. The MIS was highly specific for methylxanthines, with an imprinting factor of (20.5+/-1.9). The analytical method resulted in detection limits of 85 microgL(-1) for theobromine, 44 microgL(-1) for theophylline and 53 microgL(-1) for caffeine.

Method for Screening and Quantitative Determination of Serum Levels of Salicylic Acid, Acetaminophen, Theophylline, Phenobarbital, Bromvalerylurea, Pentobarbital, and Amobarbital Using Liquid Chromatography/Electrospray Mass Spectrometry

We investigated a method for the simultaneous screening, identification, and quantitative determination of salicylic acid, acetaminophen, theophylline, barbiturates, and bromvalerylurea, drugs that frequently cause acute poisoning in Japan and therefore require rapid analysis for effective treatment in the clinical setting. The method employs liquid chromatography/electrospray mass spectrometry (LC/MS) of solid-phase extracted serum samples. For LC/MS ionization, the electrospray-ionization method was used, with acetaminophen in the positive-ion mode, and salicylic acid, theophylline, phenobarbital, bromvalerylurea, pentobarbital, amobarbital, and o-acetamidophenol (internal standard) in the negative-ion mode, the base ions were used in each case for quantitative analysis. Quantitation was possible for the following sample concentration ranges: salicylic acid and acetaminophen, 100 to 5 microg/ml; theophylline, 100 to 0.5 microg/ml; and phenobarbital, bromvalerylurea, pentobarbital, and amobarbital, 100 to 1 microg/ml. Using full-scan mass spectrometry, the lower detection limits of 1 microg/ml for salicylic acid and acetaminophen, 0.1 microg/ml for theophylline, and 0.5 microg/ml for phenobarbital, bromvalerylurea, pentobarbital, and amobarbital were adequate for identifying acute poisoning. When each compound was added to serum to a final concentration of 5 microg/ml and solid-phase extraction was performed using Oasis HLB 1-cc (30-mg), the mean recovery rate of each compound was 89.2 to 96.1% (n=5), and the coefficients of variation of the intraday and interday assays were 3.55 to 6.05% (n=5) and 3.68 to 6.38% (n=5), respectively, which are acceptable. When this method of analysis was applied in testing the sera of a female patient who had consumed a large amount of an unknown commercial drug, salicylic acid and bromvalerylurea were identified, and the treatment strategy could be determined in accordance with the serum concentration of those drugs.

Approaches towards the automated interpretation and prediction of electrospray tandem mass spectra of non-peptidic combinatorial compounds

Combinatorial chemistry is widely used within the pharmaceutical industry as a means of rapid identification of potential drugs. With the growth of combinatorial libraries, mass spectrometry (MS) became the key analytical technique because of its speed of analysis, sensitivity, accuracy and ability to be coupled with other analytical techniques. In the majority of cases, electrospray mass spectrometry (ES-MS) has become the default ionisation technique. However, due to the absence of fragment ions in the resulting spectra, tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) is required to provide structural information for the identification of an unknown analyte. This work discusses the first steps of an investigation into the fragmentation pathways taking place in electrospray tandem mass spectrometry. The ultimate goal for this project is to set general fragmentation rules for non-peptidic, pharmaceutical, combinatorial compounds. As an aid, an artificial intelligence (AI) software package is used to facilitate interpretation of the spectra. This initial study has focused on determining the fragmentation rules for some classes of compound types that fit the remit as outlined above. Based on studies carried out on several combinatorial libraries of these compounds, it was established that different classes of drug molecules follow unique fragmentation pathways. In addition to these general observations, the specific ionisation processes and the fragmentation pathways involved in the electrospray mass spectra of these systems were explored. The ultimate goal will be to incorporate our findings into the computer program and allow identification of an unknown, non-peptidic compound following insertion of its ES-MS/MS spectrum into the AI package. The work herein demonstrates the potential benefit of such an approach in addressing the issue of high-throughput, automated MS/MS data interpretation.

Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry in the study of the metabolism of drugs and other xenobiotics

The application of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) to the study of metabolism of drugs and other xenobiotics is reviewed. Original research papers covering the period from 1998 to early 2000 and concerning the use of LC/MS in the study of xenobiotic metabolism in humans and other mammalian species are reviewed. LC/MS interfaces, sample preparation steps, column types, mobile phases and additives, and the type of metabolites detected are summarized and discussed in an attempt to identify the current and future trends in the use of LC/MS for metabolism studies. Applications are listed according to the parent xenobiotic type and include substances used in therapeutics, drug candidates, compounds being evaluated in clinical trials, environmental pollutants, adulterants and naturally occurring substances.