Screening of selective androgen receptor modulators by hand-held laser diode thermal desorption-transportable mass spectrometry

Summary

Rapid and easy-to-perform (on-site) analysis methods have a bright future in forensic and food analysis. Implementing on-site prescreening of target compounds in samples would reduce the number of suspicious samples to be transported to the control laboratories for their analysis. Therefore, it would improve the efficiency of control and monitoring programs.
Ambient ionization mass spectrometry (AIMS) techniques offer simplified sample preparation and sample introduction protocols. However, today, only a few studies reported ambient ionization of food contaminants and drug analysis with a (trans)portable MS system. This work developed a handheld laser diode thermal desorption electrospray ionization (LDTD-ESI) mass spectrometry method to
rapidly screen illegal substances in solid samples. The applicability was demonstrated to rapidly identify selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) in powders and pills [1].