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Digital Microfluidics for Automated Proteomic Processing
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Multiplexed extraction and quantitative analysis of pharmaceuticals from DBS samples using digital microfluidics
Nelson M Lafrenière1, Steve C C Shih, Paul Abu-Rabie
1Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St George St., Toronto, ON, M5S 3H6, Canada.
Bioanalysis
|January 30, 2014
Summary
Digital microfluidics streamlines dried blood spot (DBS) analysis for pharmaceuticals. This new method significantly reduces processing time and solvent use, improving efficiency in drug testing.
Area of Science:
- Analytical Chemistry
- Biotechnology
- Pharmaceutical Science
Background:
- Dried blood spot (DBS) sampling is increasingly utilized in clinical and preclinical pharmaceutical testing.
- Current DBS sampling and analysis methods are often laborious and time-consuming.
- Digital microfluidics offers a potential solution for automating and accelerating DBS analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel digital microfluidic method for the multiplexed extraction and analysis of pharmaceuticals from DBS samples.
- To address the limitations of conventional DBS processing.
Main Methods:
- A digital microfluidic system was employed to handle microliter-sized droplets containing DBS extracts and internal standards.
- Multiplexed extraction of four DBS samples was performed.
- Extracts were directly delivered to nanoelectrospray ionization emitters for tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analysis using selected reaction monitoring (SRM).
Main Results:
- The developed method enables the simultaneous extraction and analysis of multiple DBS samples.
- The digital microfluidic approach significantly reduces processing time by an order of magnitude compared to conventional methods.
- Extraction solvent consumption was reduced by approximately three-fold.
Conclusions:
- The new digital microfluidic method offers a substantial improvement in efficiency for DBS pharmaceutical analysis.
- The method maintains acceptable analytical performance for a majority of the drugs evaluated.
- This technique presents a promising advancement for high-throughput pharmaceutical testing using DBS samples.
