title: Rapid analysis of aerosol drugs using nano extractive electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry.
abstract: Aerosol drugs dominate a significant share of pharmaceutical preparations on the market. A novel sensitive method utilizing nano extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (nanoEESI-MS) has been developed for the rapid analysis of aerosol drug samples with quantitative information. Without any sample pretreatment, aerosol drugs were manually sprayed into the primary ion plume created by a nano electrospray emitter for direct ionization under ambient conditions. The analyte ions of interest were guided into an ion trap mass spectrometer for tandem mass analysis. The active ingredients of various aerosol drugs, such as econazole nitrate, beclomethasone dipropionate, binary mixture of methyl salicylate and diphenhydramine, terbutaline, and salbutamol, were rapidly detected using nanoEESI-MS. A single sample analysis could be completed within 1.2 s. Tandem mass spectrometry was used to confirm the identification of important compounds in each aerosol drug sample. Reasonable relative standard deviation (RSD = 6.39%, n = 13) and acceptable sensitivity (10 ppt, 100 muL) were found for the salbutamol aerosol sample, which suggests that nanoEESI-MS has the quantitative capacity for analyzing complex pharmaceutical samples. This method was further extended to study the thermal decomposition process of salbutamol, showing that the degradation kinetics of salbutamol can be conveniently tracked. Our data demonstrate that nanoEESI tandem mass spectrometry is a fast and sensitive technique for the analysis of aerosol drug preparations, showing promising applications in pharmacology studies and in situ analysis of aerosol drugs on the market.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Biology and Material Science, East China Institute of Technology, Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province 344000, PR China.
authors.forename: Haiwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Jianqiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Shuiping
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Huanwen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000318:Adrenergic beta-Agonists / Q000032:analysis; D000420:Albuterol / Q000032:analysis; D018926:Anti-Allergic Agents / Q000032:analysis; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000032:analysis; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000032:analysis; D018501:Antirheumatic Agents / Q000032:analysis; D001507:Beclomethasone / Q000032:analysis; D004155:Diphenhydramine / Q000032:analysis; D004464:Econazole / Q000032:analysis; D005740:Gases / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000737:chemistry*; D012459:Salicylates / Q000032:analysis; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D013726:Terbutaline / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000318:Adrenergic beta-Agonists; D018926:Anti-Allergic Agents; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents; D000935:Antifungal Agents; D018501:Antirheumatic Agents; D005740:Gases; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D012459:Salicylates; D004464:Econazole; D004155:Diphenhydramine; D001507:Beclomethasone; C033069:methyl salicylate; D013726:Terbutaline; D000420:Albuterol