Fentanyl Analog Screening using LC-TIMS-TOF MS/MS.

Abstract

The use of fentanyl and the emergence of fentanyl analogs over recent decades has become an increasing concern to the community at large. Fentanyl and its analogs are the major contributors to fatal and nonfatal overdoses in the United States. Most recent cases of fentanyl-related overdose are linked to illicitly manufactured fentanyl and its associated extreme potency. In the present work, we describe a high-throughput analytical protocol for the screening of fentanyl analogs. The use of complementary liquid chromatography, trapped ion mobility spectrometry, and tandem mass spectrometry allow for the separation and assignment of hundreds of fentanyl analogs from a single sample in a single scan. The described approach takes advantage of the recent development of data-dependent acquisition and data-independent acquisition using parallel accumulation in the mobility trap followed by sequential fragmentation using collision-induced dissociation. The fentanyl analogs are confidently assigned based on their retention time, mobility, and MS fragmentation pattern.