Simple extraction of THC metabolites from urine with a single plate

Tecan has developed an innovative sample preparation method using its AC Extraction Plate, featuring Tecan Immobilized Coating Extraction (TICE™) technology. This design simplifies the workflow and is ideally suited for automation. The AC Extraction Plate is a 96-well deep well plate that selectively absorbs non-polar small molecules like THC metabolites. This method exhibits excellent linearity for THC-COOH concentrations between 2.5 and 100 ng/ml, with a lower limit of quantitation at 2.5 ng/ml.

The process comprises three rounds of solvent addition, shaking, and solvent removal to:

• add samples and standards
• wash off proteins and salts, and
• elute the desired analytes, which can then be directly injected into an LC-MSMS system

This approach eliminates the need for labour-intensive steps like protein precipitation and centrifugation, making it a cost-effective and time-efficient solution for forensic and clinical research applications.

More information online