As recently reported, dried blood spot (DBS) analysis is an advantageous 
technique for doping control purposes due to the minimal invasive sample 
collection, the simple and economic manner, as well as the low susceptibility to 
manipulation. Its general applicability to the sports drug testing arena has 
been shown for analytes of various substance classes, all of which comprise 
exclusively low molecular mass compounds. The aim of the present study was to 
investigate whether the technique of DBS analysis is applicable also to 
(pegylated) peptides with relevance for doping controls. As target analyte, 
peginesatide (Omontys, Hematide), a recently approved pegylated 
erythropoietin-mimetic peptide of approximately 45 kDa, tested for the treatment 
of anaemia in patients with renal failure, was chosen, which has been prohibited 
in elite sports due to its assumed endurance enhancing effects. Therefore, a 
detection method for peginesatide employing DBS was developed based on 
extraction, proteolytic digestion and cation-exchange purification followed by 
liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis. Eventually, the assay 
was validated for qualitative purposes and proved to be specific, sensitive 
(limit of detection, 10 ng/mL) and precise (relative standard deviations below 
18%), demonstrating the general suitability of DBS analysis in sports drug 
testing also for (pegylated) peptides.