Spherical Sampler Probes Enhance the Robustness of Ambient Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Rapid Drugs Screening

Abstract

Ambient ionization mass spectrometry has become one of the most promising approaches for rapid and high-throughput screening of small molecules in complex biological matrices for emergency medicine, forensics, and food and agriculture applications. The simple procedures for sample collection and ionization without additional pretreatment are vital in these fields. Many efforts have been devoted to modifying various ambient ionization techniques to simplify the procedures and improve the robustness and sensitivity of the methods. Here, we demonstrate the implementation of rigid spherical sampler probes to improve the robustness of touch spray ionization mass spectrometry. The sphericity of the probes increases the stability of the cone-jet mode of electrospray, reduces the requirements for fine positioning of a sampler in the ion source, and decreases the possibility of corona discharge occurrence. The utilization of spherical sampler probes allows fast, non-invasive sampling, followed by rapid analysis for various drugs of different chemical classes in complex biological matrices, such as the whole blood or sebum collected from the skin surface. The linearity of the analytical signal response from drug concentration confirms the possibility of creating a simple semiquantitative method for small molecules monitoring using spherical sampler probes.

No skin off your back: the sampling and extraction of sebum for metabolomics

“…Both AIMS approaches allow a high sample throughput (≤ 5 s from collection to data generation (Cho et al, 2021 ; Zhao et al, 2008 ) but do not allow molecular separation prior to detection. Considering the successes of AIMS for biological skin analyses in forensic science (Justes et al, 2007 ; Zhao et al, 2008 ), drug development (Cho et al, 2022 ; Katona et al, 2011 ), and cosmetic science (Motoyama & Kihara 2017 ), as well as continuous developments regarding probes (Fatou et al, 2018 ; Meisenbichler et al, 2020 ; Shamraeva et al, 2022 ) and portable mass spectrometers (Burns et al, 2022 ; Hendricks et al, 2014 ; Li et al, 2014 ; Mulligan et al, 2006 ), this is an exciting area to watch. For more information, the following reviews are recommended (Feider et al, 2019 ; Kuo et al, 2020 ).…”

Portable Digital Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer Based on Separate-Region Corona Discharge Ionization Source for On-Site Rapid Detection of Illegal Drugs

“…Therefore, for scenarios such as border control, airport, court security, and prison, there is enormous demand for instruments for narcotic detection on the site, which should be sensitive, reliable, rapid, and easy to use. Currently, a number of technologies have been applied in this particular field, such as IMS (ion mobility spectrometry) [ 2 , 3 ], Raman spectrometry [ 4 ], FT-IR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) [ 5 ], fluorescence techniques [ 6 ], and so on [ 7 , 8 ]. However, as the number of target analytes continues to increase, especially NPS, the current technologies and solutions are largely outpaced and found difficult to cope with the growing challenges.…”

Wooden-Tip Electrospray Mass Spectrometry Characterization of Human Hemoglobin in Whole Blood Sample for Thalassemia Screening: A Pilot Study

“…Ambient MS methods are of great interest for direct analysis of raw samples because analytes can be easily ionized with no or little sample pretreatment process [15][16][17][18]. Ambient MS is pioneered by desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), which allows direct determination of various analytes such as proteins from raw biological samples under ambient conditions [15].…”