Rapid and sensitive dilute-and-shoot analysis using LC-MS-MS for identification of multi-class psychoactive substances in human urine.

The emergence of new psychoactive substances currently exceeding a thousand is rapidly changing substance prevalence patterns and straining the methods used for detection, most of which are suitable only for a single class of substances. This study presents a rapid and facile dilute-and-shoot system operated in conjunction with an optimized liquid chromatographic separation system for the high-sensitivity detection of substances across a range of substance classes with 3 isotopes used only. The proposed method based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is able to identify 68 substance and their metabolites in urine samples as small as 50 µL. Optimal chromatographic conditions including 95% water/methanol ratio with 0.1% added formic acid and a prolonged LC gradient run-time (15 min) improved the peak shape of polar compounds and enhanced signal strength by 5%. Under 4-fold dilution, all analytes were within 80-120% of tolerance response levels, indicating that the matrix effect was insignificant. In experiments, the limit of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.05 to 0.5 ng mL-1, while the coefficient of determination (R2) was > 0.9950. The retention time shift of each peak remained at < 2% with an inter-day relative standard deviation (RSD) of 0.9-14.9% and intra-day RSD of 1.1%- 13.8%. The rapid dilute-and-shoot presents a high-sensitivity, significant stability, robustness and reproducibility without serious interference. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the system, 532 urine samples were collected from suspected drug abusers, and the proposed method was used for rapid analysis. Of these samples, 79.5% contained between one and twelve analytes, and 12.4% tested positive for new psychoactive substances, mostly derivatives of amphetamine and synthetic cathinones. The study presents a high-sensitivity analytic system that is capable of detecting substances from multiple classes and can be used for effective monitoring of substance prevalence in urine.