Rapid screening of drug compounds in urine using a combination of microextraction by packed sorbent and rotating micropillar array electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Katrine Nielsen, Frants Roager Lauritsen, Teemu Nissilä, Raimo A. Ketola

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Rationale: Screening of drugs from urine samples can be non-selective or laborous, using either immunological, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) or liquid chromatography (LC)/MS methods. Therefore, a rapid screening method for selected drugs in urine sample was developed in a proof-of-principle manner, utilizing simple and fast techniques for both sample treatment and sample analysis. Methods: Sample treament of spiked urine samples was performed with microextraction by packed sorbent (MEPS). Five different sorbent materials (C 2, C 8, C 18, M1 (cation exchanger), and Sil (pure silica)) were tested for the MEPS. The sample analysis was performed using a circular microchip with 60 micropillar electrospray ionization (PESI) tips combined with a mass spectrometer (either a triple-quadrupole or ion-trap mass spectrometer) without any chromatographic step. Results: The sample treatment/analysis setup was tested using three drug compounds at a concentration of 1M. We found that the C 2, C 8 and C 18 sorbents in combination with 96% alkaline methanol as an eluent worked the best. All compounds were easily detected and identified by MS/MS in spiked urine samples. The whole qualitative analytical procedure was rapid as the sample treatment together with the MS analysis took about 5 min per sample. Conclusions: A rapid screening method for selected drugs from urine samples was developed, providing adequate selectivity and sensitivity, as well as a short total analysis cycle time. This new method can provide a new alternative for screening purposes, as both the extraction and analysis steps could be totally automatized.

Original languageEnglish
JournalRapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry
Volume26
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)297-303
ISSN0951-4198
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Feb 2012

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