Finding the proverbial needle: Non-targeted screening of synthetic opioids in equine plasma

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Synthetic opioids are a class of compounds that are of particular concern due to their high potency and potential health impacts. With the relentless emergence of new synthetic opioid derivatives, non-targeted screening strategies are required that do not rely on the use of library spectra or reference materials. In this study, product ion searching, and Kendrick mass defect analysis were investigated for non-targeted screening of synthetic opioids. The estimated screening cut-offs for these techniques ranged between 0.05 and 0.1 ng/mL. These techniques were designed to not be reliant on a particular vendor's software, meaning that they can be applied to existing drug screening protocols, without requiring the development and validation of new analytical procedures. The efficacy of the developed techniques was tested through blind trials, with spiked samples inserted amongst authentic plasma samples, which demonstrated the usefulness of these methods for high-throughput screening. The use of a non-targeted screening workflow that contains complementary techniques can increase the likelihood of detecting compounds of interest within a sample, as well as the confidence in detections that are made.

Original languageEnglish
JournalDrug Testing and Analysis
Volume13
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)977-989
Number of pages13
ISSN1942-7603
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2021
Externally publishedYes

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