Reduced urinary opioid levels from pain management patients associated with marijuana use.

Marijuana use has been postulated to modulate opioid use, dependence and withdrawal. Broad target drug testing results provide a unique perspective to identify any potential interaction between marijuana use and opioid use. Using a dataset of approximately 800,000 urine drug test results collected from pain management patients of a time from of multiple years, creatinine corrected opioid levels were evaluated to determine if the presence of the primary marijuana marker 11-nor-carboxy-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) was associated with statistical differences in excreted opioid concentrations.

Salt-Assisted Liquid-Liquid Extraction of Meconium for Analysis of Cocaine and Amphetamines by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

Meconium, the first stool of a newborn, can be analyzed to identify prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse. Meconium accumulates in a fetus during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy providing a wide window of exposure. Identification of in utero drug exposure is essential for the diagnosis and treatment of infants for dependency/withdrawal caused from the exposure.

Profiting from Probability; Combining Low and High Probability Isotopes as a Tool Extending the Dynamic Range of an Assay Measuring Amphetamine and Methamphetamine in Urine.

A wide range of concentrations are frequently observed when measuring drugs of abuse in urine toxicology samples; this is especially true for amphetamine and methamphetamine. Routine liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry confirmatory methods commonly anchored at a 50 ng/mL lower limit of quantitation can span approximately a 100-fold concentration range before regions of non-linearity are reached deteriorating accurate quantitation and qualitative assessments. In our experience, approximately a quarter of amphetamine and methamphetamine positive samples are above a 5,000 ng/mL upper limit of quantitation and thus require reanalysis with dilution for accurate quantitative and acceptable qualitative results.

Identification of Unique Metabolites of the Designer Opioid Furanyl Fentanyl.

The illicit drug market has seen an increase in designer opioids, including fentanyl and methadone analogs, and other structurally unrelated opioid agonists. The designer opioid, furanyl fentanyl, is one of many fentanyl analogs clandestinely synthesized for recreational use and contributing to the fentanyl and opioid crisis. A method has been developed and validated for the analysis of furanyl fentanyl and furanyl norfentanyl in urine specimens from pain management programs.

Analysis of mitragynine and metabolites in human urine for detecting the use of the psychoactive plant kratom.

The leaves of the South Asian plant kratom are described as having stimulating effects at low doses, and opiate-like analgesic and euphoric effects at high doses. A long history of use and abuse has led to the classification of kratom as a controlled substance in its native Thailand and other South Asian countries. However, kratom is not controlled in the United States, and the ready availability of kratom has led to its emergence as an herbal drug of abuse.

NanoHPLC-nanoESI(+)-MS/MS quantitation of bis-N7-guanine DNA-DNA cross-links in tissues of B6C3F1 mice exposed to subppm levels of 1,3-butadiene.

1,3-Butadiene (BD) is an important industrial chemical and a common environmental pollutant present in urban air. BD is classified as a human carcinogen based on epidemiological evidence for an increased incidence of leukemia in workers occupationally exposed to BD and its potent carcinogenicity in laboratory mice. A diepoxide metabolite of BD, 1,2,3,4-diepoxybutane (DEB), is considered the ultimate carcinogenic species of BD due to its ability to form genotoxic DNA-DNA cross-links.

Analysis of total and transferrin-bound iron in human serum for pharmacokinetic studies of iron-sucrose formulations.

Background: Patients with iron-deficiency anemia benefit from intravenous iron therapies. Development of these pharmaceutical agents requires pharmacokinetic studies monitoring levels of both the administered agent and transferrin-bound iron (TBI). Successful pharmacokinetic methods must discriminate iron species.

Persistence and repair of bifunctional DNA adducts in tissues of laboratory animals exposed to 1,3-butadiene by inhalation.

1,3-Butadiene (BD) is an important industrial and environmental chemical classified as a human carcinogen. The mechanism of BD-mediated cancer is of significant interest because of the widespread exposure of humans to BD from cigarette smoke and urban air. BD is metabolically activated to 1,2,3,4-diepoxybutane (DEB), which is a highly genotoxic and mutagenic bis-alkylating agent believed to be the ultimate carcinogenic species of BD.

1,3-Butadiene: Biomarkers and application to risk assessment.

1,3-Butadiene (BD) is a known rodent and human carcinogen that is metabolized mainly by P450 2E1 to three epoxides, 1,2-epoxy-3-butene (EB), 1,2:3,4-diepoxybutane (DEB) and 1,2-epoxy-3,4-butanediol (EB-diol). The individual epoxides vary up to 200-fold in their mutagenic potency, with DEB being the most mutagenic metabolite. It is important to understand the internal formation of the individual epoxides to assign the relative risk for each metabolite and to understand the molecular mechanisms responsible for major species differences in carcinogenicity.

Column switching HPLC-ESI(+)-MS/MS methods for quantitative analysis of exocyclic dA adducts in the DNA of laboratory animals exposed to 1,3-butadiene.

1,3-Butadiene (BD) is an important industrial and environmental chemical classified as a human carcinogen on the basis of epidemiological evidence for an increased incidence of leukemia in workers occupationally exposed to BD and its carcinogenicity in laboratory rats and mice. BD is metabolically activated to epoxide intermediates that can react with nucleophilic sites of cellular biomolecules. Among these, 1,2,3,4-diepoxybutane (DEB) is considered the ultimate carcinogenic species of BD due to its potent genotoxicity and mutagenicity attributed to the ability to form DNA-DNA cross-links and exocyclic nucleoside adducts.

Cdk2 plays a critical role in hepatocyte cell cycle progression and survival in the setting of cyclin D1 expression in vivo.

Cdk2 was once believed to play an essential role in cell cycle progression, but cdk2(-/-) mice have minimal phenotypic abnormalities. In this study, we examined the role of cdk2 in hepatocyte proliferation, centrosome duplication and survival. Cdk2(-/-) hepatocytes underwent mitosis and had normal centrosome content after mitogen stimulation.

Molecular dosimetry of 1,2,3,4-diepoxybutane-induced DNA-DNA cross-links in B6C3F1 mice and F344 rats exposed to 1,3-butadiene by inhalation.

1,3-Butadiene (BD) is an important industrial and environmental chemical classified as a human carcinogen based on epidemiologic studies in occupationally exposed workers and animal studies in laboratory rats and mice. BD is metabolically activated to three epoxides that can react with nucleophilic sites in biomolecules. Among these, 1,2,3,4-diepoxybutane (DEB) is considered the ultimate carcinogen due to its high genotoxicity and mutagenicity attributed to its ability to form DNA-DNA cross-links.

Distinct proliferative and transcriptional effects of the D-type cyclins in vivo.

The D-type cyclins (D1, D2 and D3) are components of the cell cycle machinery and govern progression through G(1) phase in response to extracellular signals. Although these proteins are highly homologous and conserved in evolution, they contain distinct structural motifs and are differentially regulated in various cell types. Cyclin D1 appears to play a role in many different types of cancer, whereas cyclins D2 and D3 are less frequently associated with malignancy.

Akt-mediated liver growth promotes induction of cyclin E through a novel translational mechanism and a p21-mediated cell cycle arrest.

The control of hepatocyte growth is relevant to the processes of liver regeneration, development, metabolic homeostasis, and cancer. A key component of growth control is the protein kinase Akt, which acts downstream of mitogens and nutrients to affect protein translation and cell cycle progression. In this study, we found that transient transfection of activated Akt triggered a 3-4-fold increase in liver size within days but only minimal hepatocyte proliferation.