Due to the increase in the use of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and their overall prevalence, it is important to have effective and reliable screening technologies to detect NPS in biological matrices. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) are among the most popular screening methods. To evaluate the effectiveness of ELISA for NPS detection, five subclasses of NPS (novel synthetic opioids, fentanyl analogs, stimulants, benzodiazepines and hallucinogens) were evaluated in whole blood for their cross-reactivity on commercially available ELISA kits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this study was to examine the impact of 59 novel psychoactive compounds on common enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing kits. Concentrations above and below the individual kit reporting limits in each class were measured. Compounds that exhibited cross-reactivity were then spiked individually using a seven-point response curve to determine the level of cross-reactivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNovel illicit benzodiazepines are among the most active areas of new illicit drug manufacture and use. We describe a method for the detection and quantification of etizolam and its metabolite α-hydroxyetizolam, flubromazolam, clonazolam, diclazepam, delorazepam, bromazepam, flubromazepam, phenazepam, flualprazolam, flunitrazolam, and nitrazolam in human whole blood. After addition of internal standards, samples are buffered and extracted using a liquid-liquid extraction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLaboratory tests vary widely in their utility and each test has unique advantages and disadvantages. For the detection of ethanol use and abuse, a variety of direct and indirect markers are available. Alcohol biomarkers provide objective measures for numerous areas of testing including clinical trials, alcohol abuse, postmortem assessment, and drugs of abuse screening.
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