New Approaches To Identify Urine and Hair Adulteration Attempts in Forensic Toxicology: A Proof-of-Concept Study Using a Proteomics Approach Based on Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS).

{"sci_version": "1.2", "schema": "https://corpus.bntrg.co.uk/sci/1.0/sci.schema.json", "id": "pmid:40763070", "kind": "science-record", "revision": 4, "content_hash": "sha256:5a5650608f3961cde86866d842b9614e867deb4b964020a32ab7dc1c4f31c6c6", "created_at": "2026-11-01T20:30:51Z", "updated_at": "2026-11-01T22:56:57Z", "generator": {"name": "corpus-assay-engine", "run_id": "reading-sci-2026-11-01"}, "paper": {"state": "complete", "title": "New Approaches To Identify Urine and Hair Adulteration Attempts in Forensic Toxicology: A Proof-of-Concept Study Using a Proteomics Approach Based on Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS).", "doi": "10.1021/acs.analchem.5c03096", "pmid": "40763070", "authors": ["Tom D Schneider", "Tina M Binz", "Thomas Kraemer", "Andrea E Steuer"], "journal": "Analytical chemistry", "year": 2025, "abstract": "Urine and hair are among the primary biological matrices used for drug and abstinence testing in clinical, forensic, and antidoping settings. A persistent challenge in such analyses is the adulteration of samples: through dilution, substitution, or chemical modification, aimed at concealing the presence of xenobiotics such as drugs of abuse, ethanol, or doping agents. In this study, we investigated whether chemical adulteration, specifically oxidative treatment with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), induces detectable and characteristic changes in the proteomes of urine and hair samples. Using a bottom-up proteomics approach involving LC-HR-MS/MS with data-dependent acquisition, we compared urine samples before and after treatment (10% H2O2) and untreated hair samples with those exposed to increasing concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (3%, 6%, 9%, and 12%). Data are available via ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD064208. We identified distinct peptides, including oxidatively modified forms, that were exclusively present in either untreated or chemically treated groups. In hair samples, the appearance of some of those peptides was dependent on the peroxide concentration. Peptides detectable only after oxidative exposure were of particular interest, as they appeared to be nonphysiological and specific to the adulteration process. These species serve as candidate biomarkers for indirect detection of sample manipulation or for assessing the integrity of compromised samples. The extraction and characterization of these potential marker peptides constitute the primary outcomes of this study. These findings should lay the groundwork for further validation and the development of proteomic methods aimed at enhancing the reliability of drug testing and sample authenticity assessment in forensic and antidoping contexts.", "claims": [{"id": "claim-method", "statement": "Statistical and multivariate analysis (ANOVA, t test, principal component analysis, PCA, and partial least-squares discriminant analysis, PLS-DA and hierarchical clustering) was carried out using R (v 4.2) with these packages: ggplot2, limma, stats, ropls, and pheatmap.", "kind": "methodological", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:40763070", "locator": "sections[8] \"Data Processing and Statistics\" paragraph 2", "quote": "Statistical and multivariate analysis (ANOVA, t test, principal component analysis, PCA, and partial least-squares discriminant analysis, PLS-DA and hierarchical clustering) was carried out using R (v 4.2) with these packages: ggplot2, limma, stats, ropls, and pheatmap."}], "state": "complete"}, {"id": "claim-data-access", "statement": "The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository with the data set identifier PXD064208.", "kind": "methodological", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:40763070", "locator": "sections[7] \"HPLC–HRMS Analysis\" paragraph 3", "quote": "The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository with the data set identifier PXD064208."}], "state": "complete"}, {"id": "claim-target-result", "statement": "Oxidative treatment with hydrogen peroxide induced distinct peptide and oxidatively modified peptide changes in urine and hair proteomes, including peptides detectable only after treatment.", "kind": "qualitative", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:40763070", "locator": "sections[0] \"Abstract\" paragraph 1", "quote": "We identified distinct peptides, including oxidatively modified forms, that were exclusively present in either untreated or chemically treated groups."}, {"asset": "source:pmid:40763070", "locator": "sections[0] \"Abstract\" paragraph 1", "quote": "In hair samples, the appearance of some of those peptides was dependent on the peroxide concentration."}], "state": "complete"}], "gaps": []}, "experiment": {"state": "complete", "objective": "Oxidative treatment with hydrogen peroxide induced distinct peptide and oxidatively modified peptide changes in urine and hair proteomes, including peptides detectable only after treatment.", "steps": [{"id": "read_published_estimate", "order": 1, "name": "Read the published estimate from the source", "kind": "other", "state": "complete", "blocked_on": null, "description": "The claim, method and evidence span published with the source article.", "duration_hours": null, "parameters": {}, "inputs": ["source:pmid:40763070"], "outputs": ["the published estimate and its evidence"], "instruments": [], "reagents": []}, {"id": "obtain_source_data", "order": 2, "name": "Obtain the source data from the named repository", "kind": "data-preparation", "state": "complete", "blocked_on": null, "description": "The GEO series accession resolves and its sample accessions are listed. 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