One blood test, 54 peptide doping agents

A team at Ghent University's Doping Control Laboratory has published a single analytical workflow that screens for 54 prohibited compounds, mixing peptide doping agents and small-molecule drugs, in dried and liquid blood at the same time. The method appeared in the journal Analyst on 22 June 2026^[1]. For athletes and the laboratories that test them, the point is simple. Substances that used to need separate, slower assays can now be caught in one fast pass, including peptides that vendors sell to the grey market such as TB-500 and BPC-157.

What the method actually does

The workflow uses one microextraction step with 500 microlitres of a methanol and water mixture, then reads the sample on liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry^[1]. Liquid chromatography separates the compounds in a sample; high-resolution mass spectrometry then weighs the fragments precisely enough to tell near-identical molecules apart. The same prepared extract works across dried blood spots, serum and plasma, which is why the authors describe it as harmonized: one preparation, one instrument run, three matrices.

The 54 targets span the kinds of substances anti-doping testers worry about. The peptide group named in the paper includes alexamorelin, AOD9604, buserelin, the growth hormone fragment hGH 176-191, kisspeptin-10, LHRH, BPC-157, TB500, vasopressin, lypressin and terlipressin^[1]. The panel also reaches non-peptide agents such as ibutamoren, the oral growth hormone secretagogue better known as MK-677. Several of these sit in the same growth hormone axis as the GHRH analogues we cover, including CJC-1295 and tesamorelin.

Why dried blood matters for testing

Dried blood spots are a few drops of blood collected from a finger or upper-arm prick and dried onto a card. UK Anti-Doping describes the collection as less invasive than urine or venous blood, requiring only a very small volume, and notes that the dried samples do not need temperature-controlled shipping the way liquid blood does^[2]. That last point is the operational prize. Researchers at King's College London make the same case, arguing that dried blood spots offer improved stability, removing the need for refrigeration during transport and reducing transport costs^[3].

The new Ghent workflow puts numbers on that stability for these specific compounds. The dried matrices held up under non-refrigerated storage, with the targets stable at minus 20 degrees Celsius for at least two months, and the prepared extracts stable for at least 72 hours in the autosampler at 10 degrees Celsius^[1]. Detection limits ran from 0.05 to 1.25 nanograms per millilitre. For a testing programme, longer stability and cheaper transport mean samples can travel from a remote competition to a central laboratory without a refrigerated chain, which lowers the cost of testing more athletes.

Where this sits in the rules

The substances this method targets are prohibited under the World Anti-Doping Agency's Prohibited List, which is revised every year and takes effect on 1 January^[4]. Peptide hormones, growth factors, related substances and mimetics fall under category S2, which is banned at all times, in and out of competition. Growth hormone secretagogues and releasing peptides like the ones in this panel are the textbook S2 examples. A faster, cheaper detection method does not change what is banned. It changes how reliably a banned substance can be found, and that is the part that affects an athlete's real exposure to a positive test.

Dried blood spot testing is not new to sport. National anti-doping organisations have run it alongside urine and venous blood for several years, and both UK Anti-Doping and King's College London frame it as a complement to existing programmes rather than a replacement^[2][3]. What the Ghent paper adds is breadth in a single run: peptides and small molecules together, across dried and liquid blood, with one extraction.

What this is not

It is not a finished, deployed test in every laboratory. The paper reports a validated workflow, not a global rollout, and matrix effects of 5 to 33 percent and extraction yields of 15 to 80 percent show that performance still varies by compound^[1]. It is not medical guidance, and it does not tell anyone what to take. It is a detection-science result. The reason it belongs on this site is that the peptides named in the panel are the same ones readers ask us about, and the honest framing is that the gap between using these compounds and being caught using them is narrowing.

For the regulatory status of individual peptides, including the ones in this detection panel, see our peptide library and the regulation hub. If you are an athlete subject to testing, the substances above are prohibited in sport regardless of how they are sold, and any decision about your own health belongs with a qualified clinician.