Thesis
Application of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy for the direct detection of stimulants in biofluids
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2024
- Thesis identifier
- T16986
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201883474
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Drug detection has become a necessity with dynamic drug markets, the increasing and diverse number of compounds consumed by the world population, the rise of novel psychoactive substances (NPSs) and poly-drug use and lies at the heart of all drug-related issues, policies and legislation. The current screening tests provide inconsistent results across various classes of drugs, especially NPSs, and in different biofluids with high false-positive rates, necessitating secondary testing using expensive confirmatory techniques at already overloaded laboratories. To this effect, the potential of attenuated total reflectance – Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy in combination with chemometric analyses is evaluated in this thesis as a direct, rapid, adaptable and inexpensive screening method for the detection of methamphetamine (MA) in serum and urine. The method developed here required no prior sample preparation and is demonstrated to distinguish MA from drug-free samples in forensically and clinically relevant concentrations with sensitivities and specificities of ~91% in serum and ~95.5% in urine. Furthermore, discrimination of MA from its metabolites in serum and urine is also demonstrated as they are more likely to be found alongside MA in real-world samples. Limits of detection and quantification of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy for MA are also established at 0.1 mg/mL and 0.3 mg/mL in serum and 0.29 mg/mL and 0.9 mg/mL in urine respectively to establish the applicability of this method in various settings. The suitability of this method as an alternative screening test is demonstrated by successfully discriminating MA from the common prescription drugs known to give false positives on immunoassays in a clinical setting. Finally, the suitability of this method in forensic toxicological screening is illustrated by distinguishing MA from its NPS analogues, synthetic cathinones. Through this work, the great potential of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy is demonstrated for the direct detection of drugs in biological samples to keep up with the ever-evolving drug markets.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Nordon, Alison
- Baker, Matthew J.
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2023
- Embargo Note
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PDF of thesis T16986 | 2024-06-27 | 公开 | 下载 |