Chromatographia 2009, 70, November (No. 9/10)
High-Throughput Screening of Drugs of Abuse in Urine by Supported LiquidLiquid
Extraction and UHPLC
Coupled to Tandem MS
Aubert Maquille1,2, Davy Guillarme1, Serge Rudaz1, Jean-Luc Veuthey1,&
1 School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, University of Lausanne,
Boulevard dYvoy 20,
1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland;E-Mail: jean-luc.veuthey@unige.ch
2 Present Address: Laboratory of Chemical and Physico-Chemical Analysis of Drugs
(CHAM), Louvain
Drug Research Institute, Universite´ Catholique de Louvain, Avenue E.
Mounier, 72, bte 72.30, 1200 Brussels,
Belgium
Abstract
A qualitative method, involving supported liquidliquid extraction (SLE)
and ultra high
pressure liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MSMS),
was developed for the rapid tentative identification of various drugs of abuse
in urine. In this
study, 28 drugs and metabolites were covered by the screening procedure. Before
analysis,
urine samples were extracted by SLE and good extraction recoveries were obtained
for most
investigated compounds. The UHPLC strategy was then selected for the rapid separation
of
amphetamines, cocaine, opiates and related compounds in urine. Using columns
packed
with sub-2 lm particles, analysis time was reduced down to 2 min, while maintaining
acceptable performance. Finally, the detection was by tandem MS operating in
the single
reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. The most intense transition was selected for
the different
drugs and SRM dwell times set at 5 ms, to maintain sufficient data points across
the narrow
UHPLC peaks. The tentative identification of the drugs of interest, including
amphetamines,
opiates and cocaine, was based on both, retention times and mass spectrometry
information.
With the proposed method, limits of detection were estimated at about 1 ng mL-1
and the
applicability was assessed by successfully analyzing several samples of drug
abusers. Finally,
this study demonstrates the potential of UHPLC coupled to tandem MS for the
rapid screening
of drugs of abuse in urine.