Parallel artificial membrane permeability assay for blood-brain permeability determination of illicit drugs and synthetic analogues.

With the number of designer drugs on the streets rampantly on the rise, it's becoming more and more important to be able to rapidly characterize them in a biologically relevant way. Using a parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA) to assess the blood brain barrier permeability has shown to be a high throughput way to compare new drugs with currently controlled substances via their effective permeability values. This combined with direct infusion electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry creates a rapid technique for characterization of new designer drugs. PAMPA has successfully determined the effective permeabilities of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, MDMA, and several tryptamine derivatives.