Bridging the gap between sample collection and laboratory analysis: using dried blood spots to identify human exposure to chemical agents

Abstract

Public health response to large scale chemical emergencies presents logistical challenges for sample collection, transport, and analysis. Diagnostic methods used to identify and determine exposure to chemical warfare agents, toxins, and poisons traditionally involve blood collection by phlebotomists, cold transport of biomedical samples, and costly sample preparation techniques. Use of dried blood spots, which consist of dried blood on an FDA-approved substrate, can increase analyte stability, decrease infection hazard for those handling samples, greatly reduce the cost of shipping/storing samples by removing the need for refrigeration and cold chain transportation, and be self-prepared by potentially exposed individuals using a simple finger prick and blood spot compatible paper. Our laboratory has developed clinical assays to detect human exposures to nerve agents through the analysis of specific protein adducts and metabolites, for which a simple extraction from a dried blood spot is sufficient for removing matrix interferents and attaining sensitivities on par with traditional sampling methods. The use of dried blood spots can bridge the gap between the laboratory and the field allowing for large scale sample collection with minimal impact on hospital resources while maintaining sensitivity, specificity, traceability, and quality requirements for both clinical and forensic applications.

Semi-Quantitative Risk Assessment in the Chemical Stores of the University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq

“…In the present study, store employees exposed to different chemicals during the conducting of their duties, like high concentrated acids, ammonia, benzene, xylene with high risk levels. Exposure rate depends on the nature of the scientific department and its specialist, chemical use cannot be avoided for the need to be used in many aspects, such as industry and scientific research [11][12][13][14], but followed the clear regulations and put influence policy with continuous workers training aid in creating a base of workers they have experience in safe use with chemicals [15][16][17]. The experience with chemicals in Iraqi universities in general and the University of Technology in particular, the imposition of chemicals stock control [18], defining the responsibilities [19], reduce waste and leakage of hazardous materials, training workers and developing policies to improve performance in the field of chemicals work and followed the quality criteria and transparency in university performance in general and in the chemicals field specially.…”

Poisoning by organophosphorus nerve agents and pesticides: An overview of the principle strategies and current progress of mass spectrometry-based procedures for verification

“…Dried material is considered non-infectious. Therefore, procedures and devices for the shipment of dried blood and plasma spotted onto filter paper were introduced that allow protein-adduct analysis [64] , [79] , [80] , [81] . The dried material showed excellent stability and the solid support did not cause any interference, thus highlighting an important alternative for simplified sample transport, storage and analysis.…”

“…For verification purposes HSA may be isolated from plasma or serum initially by affinity supports like HiTrap blue [57] , [63] . However, depending on the required sensitivity and the resolution of the MS-system used, initial protein isolation from plasma or serum might be omitted, since albumin is the most abundant protein in this biological fluid (40 mg/ml) [38] , [64] , [65] . Accordingly, the biological sample is directly subjected to pronase-catalyzed proteolysis for the generation of single tyrosine residues ( Fig.…”