Restek at TIAFT 2024

2-6 September, St. Gallen, Switzerland

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TECHNICAL POSTERS

Using a Virtual Liquid Chromatography Tool to Develop Methods for Novel Psychoactive Substances

Tuesday, September 3, 10:00-10:30 a.m.
Cyrille Lamboley, (presenter), Haley Berkland, Melinda Urich, Justin Steimling, Jamie York, Chris Nelson, Tim Yosca, John Garrett
Restek Corporation

Abstract
Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) have created a challenge for toxicology laboratories. New NPS are constantly disappearing as fast as they emerge, making it difficult to stay on top of which compounds are necessary to add to laboratory testing scopes.

The development and optimization of liquid chromatography (LC) separations is time-consuming and costly, often requiring several steps including literature research, column selection, method scouting, method development, and method optimization.

To alleviate the burden of sacrificing instrument-uptime, labor and materials, an instrument-free software modeling tool was developed to include a comprehensive drugs of abuse (DoA) library. Users can obtain optimized separations while maintaining critical pair resolution by adjusting parameters, such as column dimension, mobile phase, gradient programs, and more, for almost 300 compounds, including the 38 newly added NPS drugs.

The primary objective of this study was to use a chromatographic modeling tool to develop effective LC-MS/MS methods for various NPS compounds, including synthetic opioids, designer benzodiazepines, synthetic cathinones, synthetic cannabinoids, and toxic adulterants.

The online chromatogram modeling tool successfully developed methods for NPS compounds. Developing the methods using the virtual chromatography tool was completed in under ten minutes per method, and based on the acceptance criteria as defined, each NPS method was successfully transferred from the virtual model to an LC-MS/MS instrument.

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Simultaneous Analysis of Ultrashort-Chain, Short-Chain, Long-Chain, and Alternative PFAS in Human Plasma/Serum

Thursday, September 5, 4:00-4:30 p.m.
Cyrille Lamboley, (presenter), Shun-Hsin Liang, Justin Steimling
Restek Corporation

Abstract
The per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) targeted for analysis in blood may vary based on the specific concern in a given region or population. Some commonly analyzed PFAS range from short- to long-chain compounds (C4 – C10). The ultrashort-chain (USC) PFAS with carbon chain lengths of shorter than C4 have become a major concern due to their prevalence and high levels of occurrence in environmental aquatic systems.

Several studies have indicated a rapid increase in environmental concentration of USC PFAS, raising the concern of elevated human exposure. The measurement of USC PFAS in blood can not only monitor the human exposure but also provide a tool for studying the potential risks associated with USC PFAS exposure. However, the high polarity of ultrashort-chain PFAS poses a challenge to current analytical practices based on reversed-phase liquid chromatography due to insufficient chromatographic retention.

A unique method was developed to enable simultaneous biomonitoring of USC PFAS and commonly analyzed C4 to C10 compounds. The analytes in this study included C1 to C10 carboxylic acid and sulfonic acid PFAS, along with four alternative compounds: hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA), 4,8-dioxa-3H-perfluoro-nonanoic acid, 9-chlorohexadecafluoro-3-oxanonane-1-sulfonic acid, and 11-chloroeicosafluoro-3-oxaundecane-1-sulfonic acid.

Satisfactory retention was achieved for C1 to C3 compounds, including trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), perfluoropropanoic acid, trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, perfluoroethanesulfonic acid, and perfluoropropanesulfonic acid.

This study demonstrated that a polar-embedded, reversed-phase column allows for the simultaneous analysis ultrashort-chain and long-chain PFAS.

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