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Recent advances in analysis of new psychoactive substances by means of liquid chromatography coupled with low-resolution tandem mass spectrometry

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Abstract

The number of methods for the analysis of new psychoactive substances (NPS) is continually increasing, and there is no indication that this trend will change in the near future. The constantly growing market of “designer drugs” makes it necessary to develop new methods of their analysis. The aim of this review is to present the multi-component methods of detection and identification of NPS using low-resolution tandem mass spectrometry coupled with liquid chromatography. For this purpose, 36 articles were selected by applying strictly defined search criteria. Due to the large differences in the matrices and physicochemical properties of the analytes, the described research methods are diverse. These differences are visible in sample preparation methods, chromatographic columns, mobile phases, gradients, or additives to mobile phases used. This work collects and organizes the existing information on the subject of NPS screening analysis methods and will be helpful to forensic scientists working on this topic.

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Abbreviations

ACN:

Acetonitrile

AmAc:

Ammonium acetate

AmFm:

Ammonium formate

DBS:

Dry blood spots

EMCDDA:

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction

EWS EU:

European Union Early Warning System

FA:

Formic acid

H2O:

Water

HCl:

Hydrochloric acid

IPA:

Isopropyl alcohol

LC-HRMS:

Liquid chromatography with high-resolution mass spectrometry

LC-MS/MS:

Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry

LC-QQQ-MS:

Liquid chromatography with triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry

LLE:

Liquid-liquid extraction

MeOH:

Methanol

MRM:

Multiple reaction monitoring

MTBE:

Methyl tert-butyl ether

NPS:

New psychoactive substances

PP:

Protein precipitation

QTRAP:

Mass spectrometers with quadrupole and linear ion trap

RP:

Reversed-phase

SLE:

Solid-liquid extraction

SPE:

Solid-phase extraction

SRM:

Selected reaction monitoring

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Acknowledgements

I would like to give my sincere thanks to Professor Grzegorz Zadora for valuable advices given during the writing of the publication. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support for this work from the Polish National Center for Research and Development, Lider XII (grant number: LIDER/53/0277/L-12/20/NCBR/2021).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jan Sehn Institute of Forensic Research, Cracow, Poland

    Bartłomiej Feigel & Piotr Adamowicz

  2. Cracow University of Technology, Cracow, Poland

    Bartłomiej Feigel & Sławomir Wybraniec

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  1. Bartłomiej Feigel
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Feigel, B., Adamowicz, P. & Wybraniec, S. Recent advances in analysis of new psychoactive substances by means of liquid chromatography coupled with low-resolution tandem mass spectrometry. Anal Bioanal Chem 416, 107–124 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-023-05057-z

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