Citation

Staeheli SN, Veloso VP, Bovens M, Bissig C, Kraemer T, Poetzsch M. Drug Test. Anal. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Present address: Swiss Drug Testing GmbH, Winterthur, Switzerland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/dta.2664

PMID

31219237

Abstract

The total number of synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) - a group of new psychoactive substances (NPS) - is still increasing every year. The rapidly changing market demands for latest analytical methods to detect the consumption of SCs in clinical or forensic toxicology. In addition, metabolites of the SC must also be included in a screening procedure, if detection in urine is asked for. For that purpose, an easy and fast qualitative LC-MS/MS urine screening method for the detection of 75 SCs and their metabolites was developed and validated in terms of matrix effects, recovery and limits of identification for a selection of analytes. SCs metabolites were generated using in vitro human liver microsome assays, identified by LC-HRMS/MS and finally included to the MS2 mass spectra in-house library. Sample preparation was performed using a cheap and easy salting-out-liquid-liquid extraction (EH-SA-LLE) after enzymatic hydrolysis.

METHOD validation showed good selectivity, limits of identification down to 0.05 ng/mL, recoveries above 80% and matrix effects within ± 25% for the selected analytes. Applicability of the method was demonstrated by detection of SC metabolites in authentic urine samples.

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Language: en

Keywords

LC-MS/MS; New psychoactive substances NPS; metabolites; screening; synthetic cannabinoids; urine