Abstract
This study proposes a new, efficient, and selective method for the analysis of cocaine in oral fluid. For this purpose, an extractive phase with restricted access materials (RAM) capable of extract and pre-concentrate low molecular weight analytes and simultaneously exclude macromolecules was developed for disposable pipette extraction (DPX) followed by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analyses. The proposed method was optimized using a 24 factorial design which pointed higher extraction efficiency under the following conditions: pH 9, 10 cycles of extraction (aspirate/dispense), 3 cycles of desorption (aspirate/dispense) and acetonitrile as desorption solvent. The DPX-RAM/LC-MS method showed linearity range from 10 to 100 ng mL-1 with determination coefficient (R2) = 0.999, accuracy values ranged from -0.9 to 4.3%, precision values ranged from 1.7 to 9.1% and recovery values ranged from 97.9 to 101.1%. The benefits of this method are that it can be performed in few minutes and that the analytical performances, including the limit of detection (3.13 ng mL-1), limit of quantitation (10 ng mL-1) and linear range were found to be in agreement with other methods used for similar analysis.
Highlights
Cocaine is an alkaloid derived from the Erythroxylum coca plant that grows abundantly in the Andes region of South America.[1]
In the synthesis of the restricted access materials (RAM) phase, the 0.05 mol L-1 phosphate buffer solution pH 6 was employed to ensure that the bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein was not denatured
The RAM-BSA phase was kept in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) solution 0.05 mol L-1 pH 6 in refrigerator to ensure immobilized protein integrity.[33]
Summary
Cocaine is an alkaloid derived from the Erythroxylum coca plant that grows abundantly in the Andes region of South America.[1] It can be mainly found in the cocaine hydrochloride form, a white crystalline powder, which is introduced to the human body by inhalation, ingestion or directly injected into the blood stream. In addition to analyzing the parent compound, it is necessary to detect various metabolic products that are generated as the body processes these compounds before elimination in urine.[6] An alternative matrix is oral fluid, which has high concentration of analytes in their original form before they can be metabolized.[7] Other benefits of using oral fluid as a biological matrix are that it is an easy and noninvasive matrix to collect. The collection can be performed in remote locations where there are no medical facilities available.[8]
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