GEN-MKT-18-7897-A
Dec 16, 2016 | Blogs, Forensic | 0 comments
There is a lot you can tell from a droplet of blood as it’s snapshot of what could be present in a body at any given moment. In the following application note, LC-MS/MS Screening of 64 New Psychoactive Substances Using Dried Blood Spots, researchers did just that as they used dried blood spots (DBS) opposed to the more invasive venipuncture technique to detect 64 psychoactive substances in samples.
To accomplish this research a highly sensitive QTRAP® LC-MS/MS was used in Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) mode using the Scheduled MRM™ Algorithm. The importance of the method is that it can be expanded upon which is useful to government attempts at control the advent of new substances. When the European Monitoring System for Drugs and Addiction (EMCDDA) launched its Early Warning Program notification of new substances, for example, reported cases increased from 14 in 2008 to 98 in 2015.
As public awareness and government regulations like this become more profound, more accurate and less invasive testing methods are essential to keeping psychoactive substances off store shelves. In addition to sensitivity, the specimens can be easily stored, shipped, and maintained for future forensic testing.
Finding the right information shouldn’t slow you down. Whether you’re troubleshooting your mass spec, learning something new, or optimizing performance, access to the right resources at the right moment makes all the difference.
As an analytical strategy, middle-down mass spectrometry (MS) workflows characterize biotherapeutic proteins by analyzing large, digested protein fragments or defined subunits, rather than fully intact proteins (top-down) or digested peptides (bottom-up). A middle-down strategy combines the strengths of top-down and bottom-up approaches by delivering high sequence coverage and structural specificity while maintaining relatively simple sample preparation. In practice, middle-down analysis enables accurate mass measurement, rapid sequence confirmation, and localization of key post-translational modifications (PTMs) on protein subunits that are directly relevant to product quality.
In biopharmaceutical development, sequence variants (SV) are considered an inherent risk of producing complex proteins in living systems. Sequence variants are unintended changes to the amino acid sequence of a biotherapeutic and can be caused by errors in transcription or translation in the host cell, or cell culture and process conditions. Detailed analysis of SVs is important in process and product development to ensure the drug’s safety and efficacy. Even low‑level sequence variants can have significant implications for product quality, safety, and efficacy, making their accurate detection and characterization a critical requirement across development, process optimization, and regulatory submission.
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