Comparison of different chiral selectors for the enantiomeric determination of amphetamine-type substances in human urine by solid-phase extraction followed by capillary electrophoresis-tandem mass spectrometry

The present study develops a method for the enantioseparation of a group of amphetamines and their metabolites in urine by CE coupled to MS/MS (CE-MS/MS). Amphetamines present a chiral center and thus two enantiomers, which is important from a toxicological point of view because they may have different pharmacokinetic and pharmacological properties. It is therefore essential to find suitable methods to distinguish both enantiomers. Today the use of CE is becoming more important in this field since, with the simple addition of a chiral selector to the background electrolyte, the enantioseparation can easily be achieved. However, when CE is coupled to MS, the use of volatile chiral selectors and compatible background electrolytes or other strategies such as the countercurrent migration approach are required to avoid contamination of the ion source from nonvolatile species. In the present study, we use the latter strategy to evaluate six different chiral selectors using CE-MS/MS. As a sample pre-treatment, two cationic-exchange sorbents-Oasis WCX and Oasis MCX-are compared for the urine pre-treatment. Using this method, it was possible to achieve the complete chiral separation of the amphetamines under study with detection limits ranging between 0.8 and 1.5 ng/mL and method quantification limits between 2.0 and 8.0 ng/mL. Matrix-matched calibration curves up to 150 ng/mL were used to cover the usual concentration ranges at which amphetamines have generally been found in toxicological and forensic analyses.

Enantioseparation of nicotine alkaloids in cigarettes by CE using sulfated beta-CD as a chiral selector and a capillary coated with amino groups

Nicotine (NC) and its related compounds (cotinine (CN), nornicotine (NN), anatabine (AT) and anabasine (AB)) were simultaneously enantioseparated by CE using a capillary with amino groups and sulfated beta-CD as a chiral selector. The optimum running conditions were found to be 30 mM acetate buffer (pH 5.0) containing 8% sulfated beta-CD with an applied voltage of +15 kV at 30 degrees C using direct detection at 260 nm. Using a capillary coated with amino groups, the EOF migrates toward the positive pole. However, when sulfated beta-CD was added to the BGE, it was found that the EOF migrated toward the negative pole due to ionic adsorption of sulfated beta-CD to amino groups on the capillary inner wall. All the cationic analytes migrated as anions, suggesting that they formed stable anionic complexes with sulfated beta-CD. With this system and a simple pretreatment with mini-cartridges, NC alkaloids in five cigarette samples were enantioseparated. As a result, each of the compounds except for CN was detected. In the case of NC, only (S)-NC was detected (more than 99.9%), but in the case of NN, AT and AB, the ratios of (S)-isomer to total isomers were in the ranges 58-70, 81-85 and 59-65%, respectively. On the other hand, only NC was detected in cigarette smoke and the ratio of (S)- and (R)-NCs was 96:4. The amounts of NC alkaloids in cigarettes suggest that the production of (R)-NC resulted from racemization due to the high temperature/burning of the cigarette.