Determination of Andarine (S-4), a Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator, and Ibutamoren (MK-677), a Nonpeptide Growth Hormone Secretagogue, in Urine by Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass-Spectrometric Detection

Abstract

A procedure for the determination of a selective androgen receptor modulator andarine (S-4) and a nonpeptide growth hormone secretagogue ibutamoren (MK-677) in urine has been developed including sample preparation by the “dilute-and-shoot” procedure, separation of analytes by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography in the gradient elution mode, and mass-spectrometric detection with heated electrospray ionization. The limits of detection are in the range of 0.5–2.5 ng/mL, the calibration curves are linear in the range of 2.5–250 ng/mL for andarine and 5–250 ng/mL for ibutamoren. The proposed procedure was used for the analysis of urine samples obtained from volunteers after a single administration of these drugs containing 15 mg of active substances.