Burrows C, Krotulski AJ, Tran D, He X, Cabrices OG, Wang A, McCall H, Chen X
SciexFentanyl analogues and their metabolites are a rising concern as thousands die from opioid overdose across the country. Some of these synthetic drugs have very high potency and thus only require a small amount for an accidental overdose. In addition, these high potency drugs pose a danger to public health and public safety personnel due to the possibility of skin absorption or inhalation of the drug. In order to properly identify these fentanyl analogues in biological matrices, forensic laboratories require sensitive MS systems to accurately quantitate at low concentrations, and highly specific chromatographic methods in order to separate and properly identify isomers.
Here, a confirmatory method for fentanyl and its analogues in human blood has been developed. Due to the inclusion of isomers that are challenging to monitor based on similar fragmentation patterns, the separation of these isomers within the panel was key in method development, in order to accurately identify all fentanyl analogues. The main challenge was separation of these isomers chromatographically while maintaining desirable peak shape and reasonable LC run time. Multiple analytical columns and mobile phase combinations were tested until the desired separation was achieved (Figure 1).
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