Rapid Analysis of Fentanyl and Fentanyl Analogues from Whole Blood Using SPME Coupled to the Microfluidic Open Interface.

Abstract

Fentanyl and its analogues are potent opioids that pose a significant threat to society. Over the last several years, considerable focus has been on the concerning trend of increasing fentanyl usage among drug users. Fentanyl analogues are mainly synthesized to evade analytical detection or increase their potency; thus, very low concentrations are sufficient to achieve a therapeutic effect. In an effort to help combat the synthetic opioid epidemic, developing targeted mass spectrometric methods for quantifying fentanyl and its analogues at ultralow concentrations is incredibly important. Most methods used to analyze fentanyl and its analogues from whole blood require manual sample preparation protocols (solid-phase extraction or liquid-liquid extraction), followed by chromatographic separation and mass spectrometric detection. The main disadvantages of these methods are the tedious sample preparation workflows, resulting in lengthy analysis times. To mitigate these issues, we present a targeted method capable of analyzing 96 samples containing fentanyl, several fentanyl analogues, and a common fentanyl (analogue) precursor simultaneously in 2.4 min per sample. This is possible by using a high-throughput solid phase microextraction workflow on the Concept96 autosampler followed by manual coupling of solid-phase microextraction fibers to the microfluidic open interface for tandem mass spectrometry analysis. Our quantitative method is capable of extremely sensitive analysis, with limits of quantification ranging from 0.002 to 0.031 ng mL-1 and linearity ranging from 0.010 to 25.0 ng mL-1. The method shows very good reproducibility (1-18%), accuracy (81-100%) of calibration and validation points, and good interday reproducibility (6-15%).