Development of an analytical method to detect simultaneously 219 new psychoactive substances and 65 other substances in urine specimens using LC-QqQ MS/MS with CriticalPairFinder and TransitionFinder.

Talanta

Forensic and Clinical Toxicology Center, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Department and Graduate Institute of Forensic Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Emergency Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address:

Published: February 2022

Emerging new psychoactive substances (NPS) poses a great risk to public health. Analyzing these large numbers of NPS and other associated substances often relies on liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-QqQ-MS) with multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. However, the differentiation of critical pairs, coeluted isobaric and/or isomeric species, is one of the challenges for this analytical platform. MRM transitions with poor selectivity can jeopardize accurate quantification and lead to biased interpretation. Herein, we refined a novel workflow for developing an MRM-based method with in-house CriticalPairFinder and TransitionFinder tools for the effective identification of unique and selective MRM transitions. Transitions selected by TransitionFinder showed much better accuracies than those selected only by fragment abundance in some mixtures of critical pairs. Using the proposed analytical strategy, a method that can simultaneously determine 219 NPS and 65 other substances across a variety of NPS classes in urine samples was developed, validated and applied to analyze clinical urine samples. This automated workflow is anticipated to facilitate method development for analyzing complex analytes while considering selectivity.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2021.122979DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

psychoactive substances
8
criticalpairfinder transitionfinder
8
critical pairs
8
mrm transitions
8
urine samples
8
substances
5
development analytical
4
method
4
analytical method
4
method detect
4

Similar Publications

Nowadays, synthetic cathinones (SCs) is the second more representative subclass of New Psychoactive Substances, accounting for 104 analogues in the illegal market. Since its first report in 2011, α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (α-PVP) gained popularity among drug users, provoking an increased number of intoxications. Nonetheless, pharmacokinetics data is still limited in the literature.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Motor vehicle accidents (MVA) are the leading cause of death in childhood and young adult age. One of the most important factors behind MVA is driving under the influence of alcohol (DUIA) and drugs (DUID). The importance of DUID is rising together with the increasing drug abuse.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cannabis derivatives are among the most widely used psychoactive substances in the world, which leads to growing medical concerns regarding its chronic use and abuse especially among adolescents. Exposure to THC during formative years produces long-term behavioral alterations that share similarities with symptoms of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. In this study, we have analyzed the functional and molecular mechanisms that might underlie these alterations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Investigating 3-CMC metabolism: Insights from liver microsomes and postmortem biological matrix.

Forensic Sci Int

January 2025

Laboratoire de Pharmacologie - Toxicologie, CHU de Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France; INSERM, UMR 1059, Dysfonction Vasculaire et de l'Hémostase, Université de Lyon, Saint-Etienne, France. Electronic address:

3-Chloromethcathinone (3-CMC) is a synthetic cathinone that has been identified as a new psychoactive substance (NPS) by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Despite its increasing prevalence in the recreational drug market since 2014, scientific literature on 3-CMC remains limited. This study employed a multi-step approach to investigate 3-CMC metabolism.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) have historically been difficult compounds to analyze in forensic toxicology. The identification, detection and quantitation of these analytes and their metabolites has been difficult due to their rapid emergence, short life span and various potencies. Advancements in analytical instrumentation are fundamental to mitigating these NPS challenges by providing reliable identification and sensitivity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!