Isotope dilution LC/MS/MS for the detection of nerve agent exposure in urine

Organophosphorus nerve agents (OPNA), chemically related to and derived from organophosphate insecticides, constitute a clear and present threat to both military and civilian targets. Military regimes and terrorist organizations have demonstrated the will and ability to produce mass casualties by dispersing organophosphorus nerve agents, which, in turn could terrorize populations and overwhelm healthcare systems. A high throughput, robust and sensitive analytical protocol has been developed for the quantitation of the urinary metabolites of sarin (GB), soman (GD), VX, Russian VX (RVX) and cyclohexylsarin (GF) utilizing solid phase extraction (SPE) followed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)–isotope dilution tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). The method has demonstrated linearity and reproducibility (1–200 ng/mL) for all analytes and has a Limit of Quantitation (LOQ) ≤ 0.5 ng/mL for all analytes (S/N ≥ 10/1). The method was validated by performing 20 individual analyses over 10 days by five scientists with all values falling within two standard deviations of the mean.