High-throughput screening of 311 new psychoactive substances and metabolites in wastewater by direct injection UPLC-MS/MS.
Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences – August 01, 2025
Source: PubMed
Summary
Scientists can now detect over 300 emerging drugs by analyzing just a few drops of wastewater. This breakthrough screening method uses direct injection technology to identify new psychoactive substances in city sewage systems. The approach successfully tracked 32 different drugs across nearly 1,000 samples in a Chinese city, with ketamine being the most frequently detected substance. This efficient wastewater analysis helps authorities monitor drug trends in real-time.
Abstract
The rapid global spread of new psychoactive substances (NPS) in recent years has become an issue in many countries. One emerging technology that can provide early warnings and assessments of drug situations is the monitoring of NPS in wastewater. In this study, we developed and optimized a high-throughput qualitative screening method based on direct injection that enabled the simultaneous detection of 311 NPS and metabolites (87 synthetic cannabinoids, 43 synthetic cathinones, 71 phenylethylamines, 10 tryptamines, 40 phencyclidines, 9 benzodiazepines, 38 fentanyls, and 13 piperazines) in wastewater. The run time for drug detection was only 16 min, and the method was validated to perform well in terms of selectivity, limit of detection (LOD), recovery, and matrix effect. Overall, 95.8 % of the targets had an LOD ≤10 ng/L and the recoveries ranged from 71.01 % to 119.88 %. The method was validated on 976 real samples from a city in China, and 32 substances were detected, with the highest detection rate for ketamine. This study provides a simple and direct analytical method for wastewater monitoring, which will aid in combating drug-related crime and maintaining social stability as new NPS continue to enter global markets.