Chirality at the dried blood spot: Enantioselective analysis of pharmaceuticals on sub two micron columns

The pathology blood testing in the majority of commercial labs involves a whole venous blood sample in a tube from which the serum or plasma portions are separated, and run on an immunochemistry or biochemistry analyser. Until today, these testings are very efficient, however, the assays are generally expensive and not sensitive. Furthremore, the current technology for testing very much restricts a direct-to-consumer approach for providing test information because it requires the professional taking of blood by a skilled nurse. Dried blood spot has been introduced especialy in the doping in sports arena. This method is designed to detect and deter the use of substances and methods on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list. The WADA list prohibits all stimulants in competition and names about 60 examples. The most notorious is the chiral amphetamine, which stimulates the central nervous system by releasing neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, into the synapse between neurons and consequently combat fatigue. Many other substances including chiral β2 agonists and chiral β-blockers. In this presentation, we investigate the use of two recently commercialized sub-2 µm columns Chiralpak IG-U® and Chiralpak ID-U® for the fast HPLC enantioseparation of a set of drugs extracted form a dried blood spot.