Chromatographic analysis of chemical warfare agents and their metabolites in biological samples

The objective of this study is to present and critically analyze the current state of knowledge on the chromatographic analysis of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and their metabolites in biological and biomedical samples originating from humans and animals. Fast and reliable analysis of these chemicals is extremely important at a time, when more and more cases of CWA intoxication take place by terrorist groups and radical non-state organizations use or plan to use chemical weapons to achieve their own psychological, political and military goals. The review builds on original scientific publications and reports published from 2010 onwards, including some valuable papers released before that year. The authors stated that during last ten years increased number of laboratories are focused not only on trace analysis of CWA (mostly nerve and blister agents) in environmental and biological samples, but the growing number of research are devoted to instrumental analysis of metabolites, adducts and degradation products of these substances. The identification of very low-level concentrations of CWA's metabolites and adducts in biological material is often more important and difficult than the identification of original CWA, because of lower level of concentration and a very large number of compounds are present in biological samples. Many of them are hydrolysis products, metabolites and adducts, and are present in the samples in the ionic and hydrophilic form. For this reason, different chromatographic methods, in most cases liquid chromatography, are used to perform an unambiguous analysis of biological samples: blood, urine, plasma, serum, tissues, hairs. •The state of the art of chromatographic analysis of CWA and their metabolites in biological material is presented.•The analysis of metabolites and adducts of CWA in blood, urine, plasma, serum, tissues and hairs is described.•The identification of metabolites and adducts of CWA in biological material is more important than identification of CWA.