Fragmentation of Cannabinoids by Flow Injection Analysis Tandem Mass Spectrometry (FIA-MS/MS)

Forensic application of sandpaper spray ionization mass spectrometry (SPS-MS): Direct analysis of solid pharmaceutical formulations and edible cannabis products

In this work, we employed a new ambient ionization mass spectrometry technique, sandpaper spray mass spectrometry (SPS-MS), as an efficient tool to analyze pills and tablets of pharmaceutical formulations. The following samples were analyzed: regulators of blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes, and drugs for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). Additionally, a hard candy of Cannabis sativa containing Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and its related isomer cannabidiol (CBD) was also evaluated. The surfaces of the samples, without any prior treatment, were sanded onto triangular-cut sandpaper, and full MS scans (and MS/MS) were acquired in both positive and negative ionization modes. SPS-MS (and MS/MS) allowed for prompt detection of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in each formulation. Other components of the formulations, added as excipients, were also tentatively identified. The results described herein indicate that the SPS-MS technique can be applied to fast screening of pills and tablets being potentially used as an efficient tool to detect counterfeit pharmaceutical and illicit products, a current issue of increasing concern.

Hepatic biotransformation of non-psychotropic phytocannabinoids and activity screening on cytochromes P450 and UDP-glucuronosyltransferases

This study examined the biotransformation of phytocannabinoids in human hepatocytes. The susceptibility of the tested compounds to transformations in hepatocytes exhibited the following hierarchy: cannabinol (CBN) > cannabigerol (CBG) > cannabichromene (CBC) > cannabidiol (CBD). Biotransformation included hydroxylation, oxidation to a carboxylic acid, dehydrogenation, hydrogenation, dehydration, loss/shortening of alkyl, glucuronidation and sulfation. CBN was primarily metabolized by oxidation of a methyl to a carboxylic acid group, while CBD, CBG and CBC were preferentially metabolized by direct glucuronidation. The study also screened for the activity of recombinant human cytochromes P450 (CYPs) and UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs), which could catalyze the hydroxylation and glucuronidation of the tested compounds, respectively. We found that CBD was hydroxylated mainly by CYPs 2C8, 2C19, 2D6; CBN by 1A2, 2C9, 2C19 and 2D6; and CBG by 2B6, 2C9, 2C19 and 2D6. CBC exhibited higher susceptibility to CYP-mediated transformation than the other tested compounds, mainly with CYPs 1A2, 2B6, 2C8, 2C19, 2D6 and 3A4 being involved. Further, CBD was primarily glucuronidated by UGTs 1A3, 1A7, 1A8, 1A9 and 2B7; CBN by 1A7, 1A8, 1A9 and 2B7; CBG by 1A3, 1A7, 1A8, 1A9, 2B4, 2B7 and 2B17; and the glucuronidation of CBC was catalyzed by UGTs 1A1, 1A8, 1A9 and 2B7.

EASY-FIA: A Readably Usable Standalone Tool for High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry Metabolomics Data Pre-Processing

Flow injection analysis coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (FIA-HRMS) is a fair trade-off between resolution and speed. However, free software available for data pre-processing is few, web-based, and often requires advanced user specialization. These tools rarely embedded blank and noise evaluation strategies, and direct feature annotation. We developed EASY-FIA, a free standalone application that can be employed for FIA-HRMS metabolomic data pre-processing by users with no bioinformatics/programming skills. We validated the tool's performance and applicability in two clinical metabolomics case studies. The main functions of our application are blank subtraction, alignment of the metabolites, and direct feature annotation by means of the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) using a minimum number of mass spectrometry parameters. In a scenario where FIA-HRMS is increasingly recognized as a reliable strategy for fast metabolomics analysis, EASY-FIA could become a standardized and feasible tool easily usable by all scientists dealing with MS-based metabolomics. EASY-FIA was implemented in MATLAB with the App Designer tool and it is freely available for download.