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Capillary electrophoresis: a new analytical tool for forensic toxicologists
G Manetto1, F Crivellente, F Tagliaro
1Department of Public Medicine and Health, University of Verona, Italy.
Therapeutic Drug Monitoring
|February 25, 2000
Summary
Capillary electrophoresis offers high efficiency and sensitivity for forensic toxicology. This technique is valuable for analyzing illicit drugs and alcohol abuse markers in biological samples.
Area of Science:
- Analytical Chemistry
- Forensic Science
Background:
- Capillary electrophoresis (CE) provides high efficiency, resolution, and sensitivity for separations.
- CE is versatile, applicable to diverse analytes from ions to DNA, with low sample/cost demands.
- CE instrumentation is robust, simple, and interfaces with various detectors like mass spectrometry.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the principles and forensic applications of capillary electrophoresis.
- To highlight CE's utility in forensic toxicology for drug and alcohol abuse marker analysis.
- To present an original CE method for determining carbohydrate-deficient transferrin.
Main Methods:
- Electrophoretic or electrokinetic separations in narrow-bore capillaries at high voltages.
- Application of CE for analyzing illicit/controlled drugs in biological matrices.
- Development of a novel CE-based approach for carbohydrate-deficient transferrin determination.
Main Results:
- CE achieves high separation efficiency (N > 10^5) and mass sensitivity (10^-18–10^-20 moles).
- CE is effective for analyzing illicit drugs in forensic toxicology.
- A new CE method successfully determined carbohydrate-deficient transferrin, a marker for chronic alcohol abuse.
Conclusions:
- Capillary electrophoresis is a powerful analytical tool for forensic toxicologists.
- CE's unique separation mechanisms and complementarity to chromatography enhance its investigative capabilities.
- CE significantly advances the analysis of drugs and biomarkers in forensic science.