Rapid detection and quantitation of drugs-of-abuse

by wooden-tip electrospray ionization mass

spectrometry

Tsz-Tsun Ng ^a,b, Pui-Kin So ^a,b, Bin Hu ^a,b,c, Zhong-Ping Yao ^a,b,*

^a State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Food Safety and Technology Research Centre,

Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong

Kong Special Administrative Region, Kowloon, China

^b State Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology (Incubation), Shenzhen Key Laboratory of

Food Biological Safety Control, Shenzhen Research Institute of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Shenzhen, 518057,

China

^c Institute of Mass Spectrometer and Atmospheric Environment, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

Determination of drugs-of-abuse in body fluids of drug abusers is important for the law enforcement as well as the treatment and rehabilitation. In this study, wooden-tip electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (WT-ESI-MS), a simple and cost-effective technique, was developed for rapid detection and quantitation of common drugs-of-abuse, including methamphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), cocaine, heroin and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in urine and oral fluid, following our previous successful demonstration for rapid and sensitive detection of ketamine and nor-ketamine in urine and oral fluid by this technique. It was found that the limit-of-detection for methamphetamine could fully fulfill the cut-off value requirements of the international standards, and those of MDMA and cocaine could fulfill some of the requirements. The linear range, accuracy and precision for quantitation of the drugs were generally satisfactory, except for THC for which the analytical performance still needs to be improved. Analysis of one sample could typically be completed within minutes. These results indicated that WT-ESIMS could be used for rapid screening of drugs-of-abuse in urine, oral fluid as well as other body fluids.