Investigations into the metabolism and analysis of Kisspeptin and analogs for doping controls by means of LC-MS

Code: 241A14MT

Kisspeptins play an important role in human reproductive health by regulating the pituitary secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). This renders them therapeutically interesting for the treatment of hypogonadism or anovulation, as well as hormone-dependent cancers. However, the stimulation of GnRH release (and thus indirect stimulation of gonadal testosterone synthesis) also harbors the potential for misuse for doping purposes, which is why Kisspeptins have been introduced to the WADA Prohibited List in 2024.

Within this research project, we aim to develop a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) based method to detect the potentially endogenously occurring peptide hormone Kisspeptin-54, its fragments Kisspeptin-14, Kisspeptin-13 and Kisspeptin-10, as well as the synthetic Kisspeptin receptor 1 (KISSR1) agonist TAK-448 in human urine and serum.

Following method optimization and validation, a suitable number of urine and serum samples will be analyzed as a reference population, to investigate tentative endogenous Kisspeptin levels and to assess a possible need for threshold levels in doping control analysis. Furthermore, metabolism studies will be included, employing suitable in vitro approaches. The resulting data will be evaluated with regard to specific peptide metabolites, that can help to improve the method’s detection capacity for authentic samples following Kisspeptin administration