Analysis of Nine Phenethylamines in Whole Blood Using Dried Blood Spot and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

New synthetic drugs, coined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC) as New Psychoactive Substances(NPS), have become a new threat worldwide. The NPS is dangerous not only because their safety has not been tested but also because it can be a threat to public health and security. Among the new drugs, phenethylamines(PEAs), which are mostly central nervous system stimulants became drugs of concern worldwide especially in Asia and the United State. In order to develop a rapid method for detection of PEAs in biological fluids, especially in whole blood, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS) using Dried Blood Spot was attempted. DBS is a sampling and extraction method and has been used in many fields, because it is a less invasive sampling method in which blood is taken by stabbing a finger instead of venous blood. Nine PEAs of 5-MAPB, 5-APDB, 5-EAPB, DMMA, 2C-C, 5-IT, PMMA, 25C-NBOMe, 25D-NBOMe were targeted and spiked into whole blood. Selectivity, carry-over, detection limit, linearity, precision, recovery, matrix effect, drying time, extraction solvent, and analyte stability were studied with these nine PEAs. As a result, all nine were well detected under this condition. Nine PEAs showed good linearity with an r-squared value of 0.99 or higher. Stability test showed all of them were stable for up to 30 days at the room temperature, 4 ℃ and –20 ℃ under the range of 2, 10, 20 mg/L. The DBS extraction of nine PEAs in blood proved to be fast, easy to transport and store samples. This is the first study to detect nine PEAs in blood using the DBS extraction method.