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Rapid screening of active ingredients in drugs by mass spectrometry with low-temperature plasma probe

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Abstract

A high-throughput method for rapid screening of active ingredients in drugs has been developed with mass spectrometry coupled to a low-temperature plasma (LTP) probe ion source. Without sample preparation or pretreatment, the active ingredients of 11 types of commercial pharmaceuticals, including hormones, antipyretic analgesics, cardiovascular, digestant, neuro-psychotherapeutic, diuretic, antithyroid, sulfa anti-inflammatory, antiparastic, sedative-hypnotics, and antibacterial, were directly desorbed/ionized and detected by a linear ion trap mass spectrometry (MS). The structures of these ingredients were elucidated by tandem MS. The analysis of 18 methyltestosterone tablets could be accomplished within 1.9 min, which allows fast detection with a speed of approximate 600 samples within 1 h. This work demonstrated that LTP probe ion source combined with MS is a high-throughput method for screening of pharmaceuticals and potentially applied to on-line quality control in pharmaceutical industry.

Schematic diagram of LTP probe for ambient ionization MS

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Acknowledgement

This work is supported by grants from the Innovation Method Fund of China (No. 2008IM040600) and NSFC (Nos. 20875053 and 20535020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory for Atomic and Molecular Nanosciences of Education Ministry, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China

    Yueying Liu, Ziqing Lin, Sichun Zhang, Chengdui Yang & Xinrong Zhang

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  1. Yueying Liu
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  2. Ziqing Lin
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  3. Sichun Zhang
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  4. Chengdui Yang
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  5. Xinrong Zhang
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Correspondence to Xinrong Zhang.

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Liu, Y., Lin, Z., Zhang, S. et al. Rapid screening of active ingredients in drugs by mass spectrometry with low-temperature plasma probe. Anal Bioanal Chem 395, 591–599 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-009-2947-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-009-2947-x

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