Emerging liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry technologies improving dried blood spot analysis.

Dried blood spots (DBS), a micro blood sampling technique, has recently gained interest in drug discovery and development due to its inherent advantages over the conventional whole blood, plasma or serum sample collection. Since the regulatory authorities have agreed to the use of blood as an acceptable biological matrix for drug exposure measurements, its applications have been extended not only to therapeutic drug monitoring but also to toxicokinetic and pharmacokinetic studies. The pharmaceutical industry is keen to promote DBS as a prominent tool in bioanalytical applications due to the financial, ethical and organizational issues involved in clinical trials. This could be accomplished due to the latest advances in modern analytical technology, particularly liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The present review discusses some of the emerging liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry technologies in improving DBS analysis for its innovative applications in the development of new drugs.