Department of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119991, Russia.
Department of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119991, Russia.
J Chromatogr A. 2022 Dec 6;1685:463604. doi: 10.1016/j.chroma.2022.463604. Epub 2022 Oct 28.
Nerve agents are organophosphorus compounds of the highest toxicity and danger. The production, transportation and use of these substances are prohibited by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Any fact of alleged use of nerve agents is a crime against humanity and must be investigated in detail by the world community. For this purpose, such analysis objects as biological fluids (urine, blood) and environmental objects (water, soil) are well studied. The current study demonstrates the possibility of using plants as a convenient material for retrospective analysis. Methyl phosphonic acid and some of its alkyl esters (ethyl, isopropyl, isobutyl, cyclohexyl, pinacolyl) were chosen as nerve agent metabolites. Hedera Helix growing in soil was used as a carrier of the markers. The selected markers were injected once in the soil and their content in the plant and soil was monitored for 4 weeks. A fast and simple way of sample homogenization with liquid nitrogen followed by ultrasonic liquid extraction was applied. The developed HPLC-MS/MS approach with the use of deuterated internal standards for quantitative analysis was validated. The research discovered that all the studied nerve agent markers could be detected and determined both in the soil and the plant for at least one month. The results indicate the promising use of plants as additional objects of analysis in investigation of incidents involving the use of chemical warfare agents.
神经毒剂是毒性和危险性最高的有机磷化合物。这些物质的生产、运输和使用均被禁止化学武器组织禁止。任何涉嫌使用神经毒剂的事实都是反人类罪，必须由国际社会进行详细调查。为此，对生物体液（尿液、血液）和环境物体（水、土壤）等分析对象进行了深入研究。目前的研究表明，植物作为回溯分析的便利材料具有可行性。本研究选择甲基膦酸及其一些烷基酯（乙基、异丙基、异丁基、环己基、频哪醇基）作为神经毒剂代谢物。选取的标记物被一次性注入土壤中，监测它们在植物和土壤中的含量达 4 周。应用了一种快速简便的液氮样品均化方法和超声液相提取法。采用氘代内标进行定量分析的 HPLC-MS/MS 方法得到了验证。研究发现，在所研究的神经毒剂标记物中，至少在一个月内，均可在土壤和植物中检测和定量分析所有标记物。研究结果表明，在涉及使用化学战剂的事件调查中，植物作为额外分析对象具有广阔的应用前景。
