Magnetic solid-phase extraction coupled with fluorescent lateral flow immunoassay for simultaneous on-site detection of methamphetamine, morphine, and ketamine in wastewater.

Authors

Cong Hu, Jingxin Hou, Ruiqin Zhu, Jianan Feng, Shuai Yuan, Hanyin Li, Ping Xiang, Yan Li

Published in

Analytica chimica acta. Volume 1425. Pages 346308. Dec 01, 2026. Epub Sep 22, 2026.

Abstract

Wastewater-based epidemiology provides objective, non-invasive data on community drug use, but conventional ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) analysis is laboratory-based and time-consuming. Although fluorescent lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) offers a simple, rapid, and low-cost alternative for on-site screening, its direct application to wastewater is limited by low analyte concentrations and complex sample matrices.
We developed a magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE)-LFIA platform based on polydopamine-coated magnetic nanoparticle adsorbents for simultaneous detection of methamphetamine, morphine, and ketamine in wastewater. By investigating the organic solvent compatibility of commercial LFIA strips and using an acidic eluent with low methanol content, the nitrogen blowdown reconstitution step was avoided. Under optimized conditions, the proposed method achieved limits of detection of 13.6, 14.4, and 50.8 ng L^-1, offering 66-, 61-, and 45-fold higher sensitivity than direct LFIA, with recoveries of 86.8-115.7% and RSDs below 12.3%. The entire procedure was completed within 15 min without bulky instrumentation. The method was applied to real wastewater samples, and the results exhibited good consistency with UPLC-MS/MS and a lower false-negative rate (16.7%) compared with direct LFIA (100%).
This work provides the first MSPE-LFIA platform for simultaneous on-site screening of methamphetamine, morphine, and ketamine in wastewater. This platform enabled direct eluate loading and eliminated the nitrogen blowdown step, thereby simplifying the workflow. Given its simplicity and low cost, it is expected to be applicable to multiplex detection of common illicit drugs or other hazardous organic pollutants in wastewater.

PMID:
42951545
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 29 Oct 2026.

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