Determination of 32 cathinone derivatives and other designer drugs in serum by comprehensive LC-QQQ-MS/MS analysis

Impurities in over-the-counter pseudoephedrine leading to methcathinone detection in urine

Methcathinone, a psychoactive substance with stimulant properties, has raised concerns in recent years due to its presence in urine screenings, even among individuals with no history of drug abuse. To prevent misjudgment, this work aims to explore the source of methcathinone in urine. A total of 58 urine samples tested positive for methcathinone in the National Taiwan University Hospital cohort, with 27 linked to illicit drug use and 31 from individuals with no drug use history. Co-occurrence analysis revealed a strong association between methcathinone and over-the-counter cold medications containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine. In an in vivo experiment, participants who consumed pseudoephedrine-containing drugs showed the presence of methcathinone in their urine, suggesting a connection between these substances. Additionally, tests on pharmaceutical products containing pseudoephedrine detected small amounts of methcathinone as impurities. The findings suggest that the presence of methcathinone in nonillicit drug users may be attributed to impurities in over-the-counter pseudoephedrine-containing medications. This raises concerns about potential misinterpretations of drug screening results and underscores the need for more comprehensive criteria for assessing drug use. This study contributes to our understanding of the origin of methcathinone in urine, which has implications for legal justice and drug screening practices.

Comparison of the applicability of electromembrane extraction and liquid-phase microextraction for extraction of non-polar basic drugs from different biological samples: Using clozapine as the model analyte

Understanding and comparing the applicability of electromembrane extraction (EME) and liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) is crucial for selecting an appropriate microextraction approach. In this work, EME and LPME based on supported liquid membranes were compared using biological samples, including whole blood, urine, saliva, and liver tissue. After optimization, efficient EME and LPME of clozapine from four biological samples were achieved. EME provided higher recovery and faster mass transfer for blood and liver tissue than LPME. These advantages were attributed to the electric field disrupting clozapine binding to interfering substances. For urine and saliva, EME demonstrated similar recoveries while achieving faster mass transfer rates. Finally, efficient EME and LPME were validated and evaluated combined with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The coefficient of determination of all methods was greater than 0.999, and all methods showed acceptable reproducibility (≤14%), accuracy (90%-110%), and matrix effect (85%-112%). For liver and blood with high viscosity and complex matrices, EME-LC-MS/MS provided better sensitivity than LPME-LC-MS/MS. The above results indicated that both EME and LPME could be used to isolate non-polar basic drugs from different biological samples, although EME demonstrated higher recovery rates for liver tissue and blood.

Recent advances in analysis of new psychoactive substances by means of liquid chromatography coupled with low-resolution tandem mass spectrometry

The number of methods for the analysis of new psychoactive substances (NPS) is continually increasing, and there is no indication that this trend will change in the near future. The constantly growing market of "designer drugs" makes it necessary to develop new methods of their analysis. The aim of this review is to present the multi-component methods of detection and identification of NPS using low-resolution tandem mass spectrometry coupled with liquid chromatography. For this purpose, 36 articles were selected by applying strictly defined search criteria. Due to the large differences in the matrices and physicochemical properties of the analytes, the described research methods are diverse. These differences are visible in sample preparation methods, chromatographic columns, mobile phases, gradients, or additives to mobile phases used. This work collects and organizes the existing information on the subject of NPS screening analysis methods and will be helpful to forensic scientists working on this topic.

Comparison of LC-MS and LC-DAD Methods of Detecting Abused Piperazine Designer Drugs

Recreational use of piperazine designer drugs is a serious threat to human health. These compounds act on the body in a similar fashion to illegal drugs. They induce psychostimulatory effects as well as visual and auditory hallucinations to varying degrees. In many cases of poisoning and deaths, the presence of two or even several psychoactive substances have been demonstrated. Piperazine derivatives are often found in such mixtures and pose a great analytical problem during their identification. Additionally, some piperazine derivatives can be detected in biological material as a result of metabolic changes to related drugs. Therefore, it is necessary to correctly identify these compounds and ensure repeatability of determinations. This article presents a comparison of the methods used to detect abused piperazine designer drugs using liquid chromatography in combination with a diode-array detector (LC-DAD) or mass spectrometer (LC-MS). Each of methods can be used independently for determinations, obtaining reliable results in a short time of analysis. These methods can also complement each other, providing qualitative and quantitative confirmation of results. The proposed methods provide analytical confirmation of poisoning and may be helpful in toxicological diagnostics.

Overview of analytical methods for determining novel psychoactive substances, drugs and their metabolites in biological samples

Recent years have witnessed a growing in interest in psychoactive substances, particularly those available in e-commerce. These have led to an increase in the number of drug-related poisonings, deaths, and road accidents. Illegal drugs are available on an unprecedented scale and cause previously unknown adverse effects, which creates a challenge for analysts to find rapid methods for identifying these substances and taking appropriate action in the shortest possible time. New psychoactive substances (NPSs) can be lethal at very low concentrations, which give particularly serious cause for concern. These drugs are easily accessible and often regarded (or claimed) to be safe, which encourages many people, in particular young people, to try them. The widespread use of these substances is compounded by the awareness that they are difficult to detect with the existing rapid screening tests. Simple, fast, sensitive, and specific methods for determining the largest possible number of black-market psychoactive substances and their metabolites are therefore essential. Such methods will facilitate treatment and increase the effectiveness of measures aiming to reduce drug addiction. The objective of this review article was to critically compare the most commonly used analytical methods for determining NPS and their metabolites in biological material, with special emphasis on the sample preparation process, and to highlight the possibilities offered by the existing analytical methods.

Rapid Targeted Method of Detecting Abused Piperazine Designer Drugs

Piperazine derivatives belong to the popular psychostimulating compounds from the group of designer drugs. They are an alternative to illegal drugs such as ecstasy and amphetamines. They are being searched by consumers for recreational use due to their stimulating and hallucinogenic effects. Many NPS-related poisonings and deaths have been reported where piperazines have been found. However, a major problem is the potential lack of laboratory confirmation of the involvement of piperazine derivatives in the occurrence of poisoning. Although many methods have been published, piperazine derivatives are not always included in a routine analytical approach or targeted toxicological analysis. There is an increasing need to provide qualitative evidence for the presence of piperazine derivatives and to ensure reproducible quantification. This article describes a new rapid method of detecting piperazine derivatives in biological material, using LC-MS. All target analytes were separated in a 15 min run time and identified based on the precursor ion, at least two product ions, and the retention time. Stable isotopically labeled (SIL) internal standards: BZP-D7, mCPP-D8 and TFMPP-D4 were used for analysis, obtaining the highest level of confidence in the results. The proposed detection method provides the analytical confirmation of poisoning with piperazine designer drugs.

Sensitive determination of illicit drugs in wastewater using enrichment bag-based liquid-phase microextraction and liquid-chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

To concentrate trace level of analytes in complex wastewater, sample preparation is necessary prior to instrumental analysis. In this work, an enrichment bag-based liquid-phase microextraction (EB-LPME) system was therefore proposed for the first time to isolate and enrich the illicit drugs (amphetamine, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), ketamine, codeine and fentanyl) from wastewater. Under the optimum EB-LPME conditions, the recoveries of the model illicit drugs were 40-93% with enrichment factors up to 93. The optimized EB-LPME was compared to hollow fiber-LPME (HF-LPME) in terms of the thickness of the supported liquid membrane (SLM), the effective SLM area, extraction recovery and mass transfer flux. Compared with HF-LPME, EB-LPME possesses larger effective SLM area, and provided higher extraction recovery. In addition, EB-LPME provided larger mass transfer flux than HF-LPME, which was mainly due to the differences in SLM thickness. Therefore, SLM thickness was identified as the main mass transfer flux-determining factor experimentally. The matrix effect of EB-LPME was evaluated using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and excellent sample clean-up was confirmed. Subsequently, EB-LPME-LC-MS/MS was validated with satisfactory results, and the detection of limit of the proposed method was in the range of 0.3-8.7 ng/L. Finally, with standard addition method, EB-LPME-LC-MS/MS was successfully applied for the determination of the model drugs in a local hospital wastewater from Wuhan, China. This study clearly showed that EB-LPME displayed great potential as an efficient sample preparation method for isolation and enrichment of the drugs/pollutants from complex environmental samples for wastewater-based epidemiology in the near future.

Ultrasound-assisted electromembrane extraction with supported semi-liquid membrane

Electromembrane extraction (EME), involving the migration of charged analytes across a supported liquid membrane (SLM) with an external power supply, is a promising sample preparation method in analytical chemistry. However, the presence of boundary double layers at the SLM/solution interfaces often restricts extraction efficiency. To avoid this, the current work proposed an ultrasound-assisted EME (UA-EME) method based on a novel type of supported semi-liquid membrane (SsLM). The characterizations showed that the SsLM was stable under ultrasound conditions. Ultrasound was found to reduce the boundary double layers and thus increase the mass transfer. Major operational parameters in UA-EME including ultrasound power density, temperature, applied voltage and extraction time were optimized with haloperidol, fluoxetine, and sertraline as model analytes. Under the optimal conditions, extraction recoveries of model analytes in water samples were in the range of 66.8%-91.6%. When this UA-EME method was coupled with LC-MS/MS for detection of the target analytes in human urine samples, the linear range of the analytical method was 10-1000 ng mL^-1, with R² > 0.997 for all analytes. The limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) were in the range of 1.7-2.1 ng mL^-1 and 5.7-6.7 ng mL^-1, respectively. The UA-EME expands the application field of ultrasound chemistry and will be very important in development of stable and fast sample preparation systems in the future.

An updated review on synthetic cathinones

Cathinone, the main psychoactive compound found in the plant Catha edulis Forsk. (khat), is a β-keto analogue of amphetamine, sharing not only the phenethylamine structure, but also the amphetamine-like stimulant effects. Synthetic cathinones are derivatives of the naturally occurring cathinone that largely entered the recreational drug market at the end of 2000s. The former "legal status", impressive marketing strategies and their commercial availability, either in the so-called "smartshops" or via the Internet, prompted their large spread, contributing to their increasing popularity in the following years. As their popularity increased, the risks posed for public health became clear, with several reports of intoxications and deaths involving these substances appearing both in the social media and scientific literature. The regulatory measures introduced thereafter to halt these trending drugs of abuse have proved to be of low impact, as a continuous emergence of new non-controlled derivatives keep appearing to replace those prohibited. Users resort to synthetic cathinones due to their psychostimulant properties but are often unaware of the dangers they may incur when using these substances. Therefore, studies aimed at unveiling the pharmacological and toxicological properties of these substances are imperative, as they will provide increased expertise to the clinicians that face this problem on a daily basis. The present work provides a comprehensive review on history and legal status, chemistry, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, adverse effects and lethality in humans, as well as on the current knowledge of the neurotoxic mechanisms of synthetic cathinones.

Piperazine derivatives as dangerous abused compounds

Piperazine derivatives are a group of compounds with a psychostimulant effect. They are an alternative to illegal drugs. They are being searched for recreational use due to their psychoactive and hallucinogenic effects. The high popularity of these compounds can be noticed all over the world due to easy purchase, lack of legal regulations and incorrect assessment of the safety of use. The recreational use of piperazine derivatives can often result in chronic and acute health problems and additionally with unpredictable remote effects. It is also common to take mixtures of psychoactive compounds. This hinders the correct diagnosis and treatment of patients with poisoning. The presented work is an illustration of the wide problem of piperazine derivatives abuse. The health effects and the possibility of identifying these compounds in preparations and biological material are described.

A LC-MS/MS method for the determination of common synthetic cathinones in meconium

New psychoactive substances have been introduced into the market in the last years due to their unregulated status. Synthetic cathinones are one of their main representatives, and they have shown to produce neonatal complications. It is important to have objective tools to identify in utero exposure to drugs that have shown to produce neonatal complications. An analytical method was developed and fully validated for the determination of common synthetic cathinones, including methylone, methedrone, mephedrone, 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), (±)-4-fluoromethamphetamine and 4-fluoromethcathinone in meconium. Meconium (0.25 ± 0.02 g) was homogenized with methanol by sonication for 30 min. After centrifugation, the sample was extracted with Oasis MCX columns. The analysis was performed by LC-MS/MS using an Atlantis T3 column (3 μm, 2.1 × 50 mm) and a gradient with acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid in water. Method validation included the following parameters: selectivity (no endogenous or exogenous interferences), limits of detection (n = 3, 0.5-1 ng/g) and quantification (n = 3, 1-2 ng/g), linearity (n = 5, LOQ-200 ng/g), imprecision (n = 15, 0% to 10%), accuracy (n = 15, 87.3% to 97.8%), matrix effect (n = 10, -76% to -28.1%), extraction efficiency (n = 6, 63.7% to 91.3%), total process efficiency (n = 6, 16% to 60.2%) and stability for 72 h in the autosampler (n = 3, %loss = -6.7% to 5.1%). The method was applied to 28 meconium specimens.

New and Emerging Illicit Psychoactive Substances

Several novel psychoactive substances have emerged in recent years. Users are typically young men who use other substances. In the category of stimulants, cathinones ("bath salts") have predominated and can lead to agitation, psychosis, hyperthermia, and death. Synthetic cannabinoids ("spice") are more potent than marijuana and can lead to agitation, psychosis, seizures, and death. There are no rapid tests to identify these substances and general treatment includes benzodiazepines for agitation and supportive therapy. Many Synthetic opioids are potent analogues of fentanyl and carry a high risk of overdose. In addition, there are several designer benzodiazepines that have emerged.

Fatal Poisonings Associated with New Psychoactive Substances

This chapter describes how new psychoactive substances (NPS) have been involved in fatal intoxications from 2010 and onwards. It summarizes the circumstances, antemortem symptoms, and adverse effects that have led to death after ingestion of one or more NPS and tabulates concentrations, and postmortem findings from these intoxications.Consumption of NPS exerts health problems and unknown risks for the users. Data on toxicity of many NPS are scarce or nonexistent and long-term toxicity and risks are still largely unknown. In addition, purity and composition of products containing NPS are often inconsistent or not known, which places users at high risk as evidenced by hospital emergency admissions and deaths.The most serious threat to drug users are the synthetic opioids that with strong central nervous depressant effects have caused numerous accidental deaths spread over the entire globe. The synthetic cannabinoids seem to be the most unpredictable with no clear toxidrome and unknown or poorly understood mechanisms of toxicity, but with adverse effects pointing toward the cardiovascular system. The toxidromes commonly encountered after ingestion of cathinones and phenethylamines are of sympathomimetic and hallucinogenic character, which includes risk of developing a serotonin syndrome, excited delirium, and life-threatening cardiovascular effects. In comparison to their conventional "parent" drug, i.e., heroin, cannabis, and amphetamine, most NPS appear to exhibit more severe adverse effects. The deaths attributed to NPS have dramatically increased in the last years. In our opinion, this is because of the shift from synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones to the even more toxic and dangerously potent fentanyl analogues.

MDPV in forensic routine cases: Psychotic and aggressive behavior in relation to plasma concentrations

The new psychoactive substance 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) belongs to the group of synthetic cathinones and is purchased mainly as "research chemical" or "bath salt" on the illegal drug market, also in South Bavaria. MDPV was detected in blood and urine samples from 2010 on in 50 authentic routine cases in a forensic setting. Plasma concentrations in 46 cases with available blood specimens ranged from approximately 1.0 to 301μg/L (median 23.7; mean 47.9μg/L), detected by a fully validated LC-MS/MS method. Subjects aged between 16 and 54 years (median 36; mean 35 years) and reflected experienced chronic drug users. Accused offences were mainly violent crimes such as bodily harm, robberies, homicides and acts of resistance. A lot of subjects showed highly aggressive and violent behavior with endangerment of self and others and/or psychotic symptoms as confusion, hallucinations or paranoia. The risk for such behavior rises with MDPV plasma concentrations above as low as 30μg/L, whereby a time interval of 1.5h on average between incident and/or observation of impairment and blood sampling has to be taken into account. Comprehensive toxicological analysis proved poly-drug use in almost all cases including opiates/opioids, benzodiazepines and other sedatives, antidepressants and other stimulants, also other new psychoactive substances. Alcohol was detected only in three cases. Co-consumed benzodiazepines seem not be able to completely prevent psychotic effects despite their use as first-line treatment for patients with synthetic cathinone poisonings. The study demonstrates that relatively low plasma concentrations of MDPV could be associated with mental impairment which is relevant in the assessment of forensic cases.

Development of a quantitative approach in blood plasma for low-dosed hallucinogens and opioids using LC-high resolution mass spectrometry

The WHO annually reports an increasing abuse of new psychoactive substances (NPS), which are a heterogeneous group of synthetic drugs and are consumed as substitute for controlled drugs of abuse. In this work, we focused on highly potent derivatives such those of phenethylamine (2C), N-2-methoxybenzyl phenethylamine (NBOMes), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and fentanyl. Severe to fatal intoxications were described due to their high potency. Therefore, they have to be taken at very low doses resulting in low blood concentration in the low ng/mL range, which is a challenge for reliable analytical detection and quantification. The aim of this work was therefore to design a simple, robust, and fast method for simultaneous detection and quantification of multiple substances of the different classes in human blood plasma using liquid chromatography (LC) high resolution (HR) mass spectrometry (MS) with alternating HR full-scan (HRFS) MS and "All-ions fragmentation" (AIF) MS. The paper contains results of the method validation according to the EMA guideline, including intra-/interday accuracy and precision, matrix effects, storage and benchtop analyte stability as well as selectivity and carryover. All validation criteria were fulfilled for most tested compounds except for the NBOMe derivatives, one out of ten 2C-derivatives and butyryl fentanyl, which failed at accuracy and/or precision or at the acceptance criteria for matrix effect. Reasons for this are discussed and solutions presented. Despite some limitations, the HRFS + AIFMS analysis allowed detection of most of the analytes down to 0.1ng/mL, seamless integration of new or unexpected analytes, identification and quantification with no limitations on the number of monitored compounds, and reevaluation of the acquired data also concerning metabolism studies using group-indicating fragment ions.

Clinical Interpretation of Urine Drug Tests: What Clinicians Need to Know About Urine Drug Screens

Urine drug testing is frequently used in clinical, employment, educational, and legal settings and misinterpretation of test results can result in significant adverse consequences for the individual who is being tested. Advances in drug testing technology combined with a rise in the number of novel misused substances present challenges to clinicians to appropriately interpret urine drug test results. Authors searched PubMed and Google Scholar to identify published literature written in English between 1946 and 2016, using urine drug test, screen, false-positive, false-negative, abuse, and individual drugs of abuse as key words. Cited references were also used to identify the relevant literature. In this report, we review technical information related to detection methods of urine drug tests that are commonly used and provide an overview of false-positive/false-negative data for commonly misused substances in the following categories: cannabinoids, central nervous system (CNS) depressants, CNS stimulants, hallucinogens, designer drugs, and herbal drugs of abuse. We also present brief discussions of alcohol and tricyclic antidepressants as related to urine drug tests, for completeness. The goal of this review was to provide a useful tool for clinicians when interpreting urine drug test results and making appropriate clinical decisions on the basis of the information presented.

Identification and analytical characterization of four synthetic cathinone derivatives iso-4-BMC, β-TH-naphyrone, mexedrone, and 4-MDMC

New psychoactive substances (NPS) have gained much popularity on the global market over the last number of years. The synthetic cathinone family is one of the most prominent groups and this paper reports on the analytical properties of four synthetic cathinone derivatives: (1) 1-(4-bromophenyl)-1-(methylamino)propan-2-one (iso-4-BMC or iso-brephedrone), (2) 2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)-1-(5,6,7,8-tetrahydronaphthalen-2-yl)pentan-1-one (β-TH-naphyrone), (3) 3-methoxy-2-(methylamino)-1-(4-methylphenyl)propan-1-one (mexedrone), and (4) 2-(dimethylamino)-1-(4-methylphenyl)propan-1-one (4-MDMC). These identifications were based on liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. To our knowledge, no chemical or pharmacological data about compounds 1-3 have appeared until now, making this the first report on these compounds. The Raman and GC-MS data of 4 have been reported, but this study added the LC-MS and NMR data for additional characterization. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An overview of recent developments in the analytical detection of new psychoactive substances (NPSs)

New psychoactive substances (NPSs), sometimes referred to as "legal highs" in more colloquial environments/the media, are a class of compounds that have been recently made available for abuse (not necessarily recently discovered) which provide similar effects to the traditional well studied illegal drugs but are not always controlled under existing local, regional or international drug legislation. Following an unprecedented increase in the number of NPSs in the last 5 years (with 101 substances discovered for the first time in 2014 alone) its, occasionally fatal, consequences have been extensively reported in the media. Such NPSs are typically marketed as 'not for human consumption' and are instead labelled and sold as plant food, bath salts as well as a whole host of other equally nondescript aliases in order to bypass legislative controls. NPSs are a new multi-disciplinary research field with the main emphasis in terms of forensic identification due to their adverse health effects, which can range from minimal to life threatening and even fatalities. In this mini-review we overview this recent emerging research area of NPSs and the analytical approaches reported to provide detection strategies as well as detailing recent reports towards providing point-of-care/in-the-field NPS ("legal high") sensors.

Modified HPLC-ESI-MS Method for Glycated Hemoglobin Quantification Based on the IFCC Reference Measurement Procedure and Its Application for Quantitative Analyses in Clinical Laboratories of China

BACKGROUND

The level of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c ) has been recognized as an important indicator of long-term glycemic control. However, the HbA1c measurement is not currently included as a diagnostic determinant in China. Current study aims to assess a candidate modified International Federation of Clinical Chemistry reference method for the forthcoming standardization of HbA1c measurements in China.

METHODS

The HbA1c concentration was measured using a modified high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS) method. The modified method replaces the propylcyanide column with a C18 reversed-phase column, which has a lower cost and is more commonly used in China, and uses 0.1% (26.5 mmol/l) formic acid instead of trifluoroacetic acid. Moreover, in order to minimize matrix interference and reduce the running time, a solid-phase extraction was employed. The discrepancies between HbA1c measurements using conventional methods and the HPLC-ESI-MS method were clarified in clinical samples from healthy people and diabetic patients. Corresponding samples were distributed to 89 hospitals in Beijing for external quality assessment.

RESULTS

The linearity, reliability, and accuracy of the modified HPLC-ESI-MS method with a shortened running time of 6 min were successfully validated. Out of 89 hospitals evaluated, the relative biases of HbA1c concentrations were < 8% for 74 hospitals and < 5% for 60 hospitals. Compared with other conventional methods, HbA1c concentrations determined by HPLC methods were similar to the values obtained from the current HPLC-ESI-MS method.

CONCLUSION

The HPLC-ESI-MS method represents an improvement over existing methods and provides a simple, stable, and rapid HbA1c measurement with strong signal intensities and reduced ion suppression.

Detection of Gelatin Adulteration in Traditional Chinese Medicine: Analysis of Deer-Horn Glue by Rapid-Resolution Liquid Chromatography-Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry

Simultaneous identification of donkey-hide gelatin and bovine-hide gelatin in deer-horn glue was established by rapid-resolution liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Water containing 1% NH4HCO3 was used for sample dissolution and trypsin was used for hydrolysis of the gelatins. After separation by a SB-C18 reversed-phase analytical column, collagen marker peptides were detected by mass spectrometry in positive electrospray ionization mode with multiple reaction monitoring. The method was specific, precise and reliable, and suitable for detection of adulterants derived from donkey-hide gelatin and bovine-hide gelatin in deer-horn glue.

Detection and quantification of 56 new psychoactive substances in whole blood and urine by LC–MS/MS

Background: New psychoactive substances (NPS) have become increasingly prevalent and are sold in internet shops as ‘bath salts’ or ‘research chemicals’ and comprehensive bioanalytical methods are needed for their detection. Methodology: We developed and validated a method using LC and MS/MS to quantify 56 NPS in blood and urine, including amphetamine derivatives, 2C compounds, aminoindanes, cathinones, piperazines, tryptamines, dissociatives and others. Instrumentation included a Synergi Polar-RP column (Phenomenex) and a 3200 QTrap mass spectrometer (AB Sciex). Run time was 20 min. Conclusion: A novel method is presented for the unambiguous identification and quantification of 56 NPS in blood and urine samples in clinical and forensic cases, e.g., intoxications or driving under the influence of drugs.

Comprehensive review of the detection methods for synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones

A number of N-alkyl indole or indazole-3-carbonyl analogs, with modified chemical structures, are distributed throughout the world as synthetic cannabinoids. Like synthetic cannabinoids, cathinone analogs are also abused and cause serious problems worldwide. Acute deaths caused by overdoses of these drugs have been reported. Various analytical methods that can cope with the rapid changes in chemical structures are required for routine analysis and screening of these drugs in seized and biological materials for forensic and clinical purposes. Although many chromatographic methods to analyze each drug have been published, there are only a few articles summarizing these analytical methods. This review presents the various colorimetric detections, immunochemical assays, gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric methods, and liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric methods proposed for the analysis of synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones.

Comprehensive review of the detection methods for synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones

A number of N-alkyl indole or indazole-3-carbonyl analogs, with modified chemical structures, are distributed throughout the world as synthetic cannabinoids. Like synthetic cannabinoids, cathinone analogs are also abused and cause serious problems worldwide. Acute deaths caused by overdoses of these drugs have been reported. Various analytical methods that can cope with the rapid changes in chemical structures are required for routine analysis and screening of these drugs in seized and biological materials for forensic and clinical purposes. Although many chromatographic methods to analyze each drug have been published, there are only a few articles summarizing these analytical methods. This review presents the various colorimetric detections, immunochemical assays, gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric methods, and liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric methods proposed for the analysis of synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones.