Identification of 5-aminometonitazene and 5-acetamidometonitazene in a postmortem case: are nitro-nitazenes unstable?

In recent years, the use of 2-benzylbenzimidazole opioids ('nitazenes') has increased with them becoming one of the most prominent synthetic opioid subclasses of novel psychoactive substances. With the increased prevalence, there is also a concern of the dangers to public health with the use of nitazenes due to their high potency especially with polypharmacy. To aid in the detection of such compounds, it is important that forensic toxicology laboratories maintain up-to-date compound libraries for drug screening methods and that sensitive analytical instrumentation is available to detect the low blood/plasma concentrations of more potent drugs.

A semi-automated and high-throughput approach for the detection of honey bee viruses in bee samples.

Deformed wing virus (DWV) was first detected in dead honey bees in 1982 but has been in honey bees for at least 300 years. Due to its high prevalence and virulence, they have been linked with the ongoing decline in honey bee populations worldwide. A rapid, simple, semi-automated, high-throughput, and cost-effective method of screening colonies for viruses would benefit bee research and the beekeeping industry.