In‐Transit Electroextraction of Small‐Molecule Pharmaceuticals from Blood

Abstract

An electrokinetic platform was developed for extracting small molecule pharmaceuticals from a dried blood spot. Through the exclusion of liquid reagents and use of low field strength (6 V/cm), the electroextraction of a drug from a dried blood spot, deposited on a polymer inclusion membrane (PIM), could be realised while in transit in the mail. In transit sample preparation provides a potential solution to in-situ sample degradation and may accelerate the workflow upon arrival of a patient sample at the analytical facility. The electroextraction method was enabled through our discovery of the use of 15-20 µm thin PIMs as electrophoretic separation medium in absence of liquid reagents. Here, a PIM consisting of cellulose triacetate as polymer base, 2-nitrophenyl octyl ether as plasticizer and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide as carrier was used. The PIM, was packaged with two 12 V batteries to supply the separation voltage. A blood spot containing berberine chloride was deposited and dried before the applying the separation