Molecularly imprinted polymer for the selective extraction of cocaine and its metabolites, benzoylecgonine and ecgonine methyl ester, from biological fluids before LC-MS analysis.

Considering the important complexity of biological samples, a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was applied to the selective extraction of cocaine and its two main metabolites, benzoylecgonine and ecgonine methyl ester from biological samples. The MIP was imprinted with cocaine and it was synthesized in acetonitrile with methacrylic acid as a functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a crosslinker. The selectivity of the MIP was first assessed for the three target analytes in acetonitrile with recoveries higher than 80% on the MIP and lower than 30% on the non-imprinted polymer (NIP).

Synthesis and characterization of molecularly imprinted polymers for the selective extraction of cocaine and its metabolite benzoylecgonine from hair extract before LC-MS analysis.

A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was synthesized and evaluated for the selective extraction of cocaine (COC) and its main metabolite benzoylecgonine (BZE) in hair extracts. To this end, a screening of different conditions of synthesis was performed by changing the nature of the crosslinker, and the functional monomer and also by changing polymerization's initiation mode. The selectivity of the different MIPs was evaluated by comparing the retention of COC and BZE between the MIP supports and also compared to a non-imprinted polymer for each.