Drug screening in pharmaceutical and forensic applications using extractive-liquid sampling electron ionization-mass spectrometry (E-LEI-MS)

In a wide range of fields, including the pharmaceutical industry and forensic science, obtaining real-time results is paramount. Hence, new analytical techniques are being developed to be both simple and fast, providing results in a few minutes. Extractive-liquid Sampling Electron Ionization-Mass Spectrometry (E-LEI-MS) is proposed as a novel analytical approach that combines an ambient sampling with the high identification power of electron ionization, providing the results in less than five minutes. E-LEI-MS was employed to analyze 20 industrial drugs belonging to different therapeutic classes and pharmaceutical forms, to evaluate its ability to detect active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients. All samples were analyzed without any pre-treatment. Additionally, the system was coupled to high-resolution MS and used to analyze 20 benzodiazepines. Among them, the six most commonly marketed benzodiazepines were used for cocktail fortification and analyzed as a residue on a glass surface to simulate the forensic scenario of benzodiazepines being used as rape drugs, where glass represents a crime scene sample. The accurate identification of these compounds demonstrates that E-LEI-MS can serve as a valuable screening technique in applications requiring the rapid acquisition of qualitative data.