Direct analysis of very small amount of blood by a disposable monolithic
column mass spectrometry kit
Abstract
A disposable monolithic column mass spectrometry kit was developed based
on monolithic column for microsampling, purification, storage,
transportation and direct MS analysis of whole blood. The kit mainly
consists of a capillary for quantitative microsampling of very small
amount of blood (2 μL), a cation exchange monolithic column for
purification and storage, and a syringe for loading sample. The cost of
the kit is estimated to only one dollar. This MS kit is very friendly to
various users that one can easily siphon small amount blood in the kit
followed by rapid sample clean-up in 30s. We established a rapid
quantitative method using the kit with a limit detection as low as 0.33
nM, achieved more than five orders of magnitude enhancement in MS
analysis sensitivity compared to nanoelectrospray ionization MS
analysis. The kit can avoid analyte exposure to oxygen, moisture and
sunlight, which helps the storage of the sample. The relative standard
deviation within 10 days were less than 10%. This method has been
successfully applied to the quantitative analysis of procainamide
hydrochloride in 2 μL rat blood. These results indicate that this kit
does have the potential to achieve low-cost, highly sensitive
quantitative MS analysis of biological sample.