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Innovative application of sheath-flow probe electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry to direct forensic identification of drugs and drug metabolites

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posted on 2024-07-10, 15:51 authored by Ayoung KimAyoung Kim

A number of drugs have medicinal uses but are also taken recreationally, and besides that, they may be abused or misused. Drug abuse commonly causes addiction, substantial health risks, and antisocial behaviours associated with crimes. Accordingly, a wide range of drugs are regulated under national and international control. While they continue to be regulated, they may be required to undergo a variety of analytical evaluations based on their control status. Analysis of controlled substances, including drugs and drug metabolites, is an area of forensic science where an analytical study is required in such a scenario to determine if they are present or not. A variety of analyses are necessary to do this for forensic purposes, all of which must adhere to sufficient scientific criteria. However, the analytical techniques are insufficient to analyse unspecified or contaminated forensic evidence containing biological materials and/or illegal substances, such as drugs, directly after collection with a short analytical sample run. Moreover, many techniques are destructive, expensive, and time-consuming, even though powerful analytical tools such as forensic mass spectrometry and spectroscopy, which provide high sensitivity and reliability, have been applied. This study demonstrates the capability of an ambient ionisation mass spectrometry technique to identify drugs and drug metabolites directly from body fluids or fingerprints. The development and application of a continuous sheath-flow probe electrospray ionisation (sfPESI) enabled drugs and drug metabolites to be extracted directly from dried blood spots or forensic gel-lifted latent fingerprints in-situ. The key benefit of utilising sfPESI was that the analytes of interest (e.g., cocaine metabolites, zolpidem, etc.) were effectively separated from complex background and contaminants by the rapid sequential ionisation characteristics exhibited by sfPESI. This technique enables the in-situ analysis of body fluids as well as controlled substances inside complex matrices, such as biological stains and fingerprints, in a short period of time, approximately 30 seconds per test. The method is low-cost and requires no prior sample preparation; therefore, correlation with forensic investigation of unspecified materials may be rapidly confirmed through sfPESI-MS analysis. Furthermore, the application of sfPESI-MS can provide a minimally destructive process confirming the identity of suspected evidence at a crime scene with high-throughput and less damage to samples, regardless of physical sample types.

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Chemistry

Publisher

Loughborough University

Rights holder

© Ayoung Kim

Publication date

2024

Notes

A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.

Language

  • en

Supervisor(s)

Jim Reynolds ; Paul Kelly

Qualification name

  • PhD

Qualification level

  • Doctoral

This submission includes a signed certificate in addition to the thesis file(s)

  • I have submitted a signed certificate

Ethics review number

R18-P034 / R19-P158

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