36 February / March 2017
Tackling the chromatographic analysis of novel psychoactive substances with High Resolution Mass Spectrometry
Phil Taylor Global Marketing Manager, Food, Environmental and Forensic at Sciex Phoenix House, Lakeside Drive, Warrington, Cheshire, WA1 1RX, United Kingdom
philip.Taylor@sciex.com
On the 26th of May, 2016 the United Kingdom introduced the ‘Psychoactive Substances Act 2016’ [1], this law is intended to restrict the production, sale and supply of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) or as they are more commonly known, legal highs or designer drugs.
This law defines a ‘psychoactive substance’ as anything, which by stimulating or depressing the person’s central nervous system affects the persons mental functioning or emotional state.
In November 2016 Germany also introduced ‘The New Psychoactive Substances Act’ (NpSG) [2]. This law prohibits the acquisition, possession and sale of new psychoactive substances (NPS) as well as sanctioning the passing on of NPS. The NpSG specifically controls over two NPS groups; they are phenethylamines and synthetic cannabinoids.
As governments around the world make new laws to combat the production of the NPS, the effects of these substances are still real. Announcements in November 2016 on the ‘UNODC Early Warning Advisory on New Psychoactive Substances’ [3] documents increasing numbers of serious adverse events and deaths associated with several emerging synthetic opioids.
Authorities need to be able to rapidly detect the NPS with confidence and accuracy to tackle the problem. However, having the reference standard to confirm the presence of NPS is often difficult if the chromatography and analytical instrumentation such as a mass spectrometer rely on already knowing the details of specific compounds. This includes information such as retention time (RT), their mass to charge ratio (m/z) and the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) transitions. Advanced systems that are accompanied by libraries which deliver high quality spectral data to confirm a known NPS, and contain these details (RT, m/z, MRM and libraries) are vital if you wish to conduct a screening assay using LC-MS/MS for example.
However, the NPS situation constantly
evolves, as the clandestine laboratories that manufacture them make
modifications to the structure (analogues), stereoisomers and derivatives. In doing
With any drug screen, the time it takes to get a result is critical and in this paper the development of a robust LC configuration and gradient was key to getting accurate and confident data. The HPLC separation was performed with a Phenomenex Synergi Hydro-RP column (20 × 2 mm, 2.5 µm). Mobile phase A was 10 mM ammonium formate in water and mobile phase B was 0.1% (v/v) formic acid in methanol. The image (Figure 1) details the gradient conditions that were employed in this study.
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