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Abstract
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AIMS: Considering the huge variety of synthetic cannabinoids and herbal mixtures on the market and the resultant increase of incidents related to their consumption, especially for clinical and forensic toxicology, there is a need for comprehensive up-to-date screening methods. This work aimed at developing and implementing an automated screening procedure for the detection of synthetic cannabinoids in serum using a liquid chromatography-ion trap-MS system and a spectra library-based approach.
METHODS: D7-JWH-015 was added as internal standard to 1 mL of serum prior to liquid-liquid extraction. 2 μL were injected into an HPLC-system connected to an amaZon speed ion trap MS. Chromatographic separation was performed using a 12-minute gradient, formic acid/acetonitrile and a Kinetex 2.6u C18 100 x 2.10 mm column. The MS was operated in the autoMSn mode generating data dependent MS2 and MS3 spectra according to a predefined scheduled precursor list (SPL). The identification is based on our in-house generated library, currently containing spectra of 38 synthetic cannabinoids. A fully automated spectra library search and reporting tool manages data evaluation.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: All compounds - including those in the library which are listed in annex II of the German narcotics law (BtMG) - could be automatically identified with an LOD of 0.5 ng/mL or less. The used search algorithm matched retention times, MS and MS2/MS3 spectra, respectively, in order to calculate a purity score. The use of parent compounds as analytical targets offers the possibility of instantly adding new emerging compounds to the library after extraction from herbal mixtures and immediately applying the updated method to serum samples.
CONCLUSIONS: The presented method offers a fast, easy-to-use screening solution for the detection of synthetic cannabinoids in serum. The combination of MS2/MS3 spectra and retention time meets common criteria for identification according to forensic guidelines. This approach can also be applied to other matrices and herbal mixtures.
Language: de |