scholarly journals Detection of a New Tert-Leucinate Synthetic Cannabinoid 5F-MDMB-PICA and Its Metabolites in Human Hair: Application to Authentic Cases

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Shi ◽  
Liying Zhou ◽  
Le Li ◽  
Mengxi Liu ◽  
Huosheng Qiang ◽  
...  

Methyl 2 -[ [ 1- (5- fluoropentyl) indole - 3- carbonyl] amino] -3, 3- dimethyl - butanoate (5F-MDMB-PICA) is a new synthetic cannabinoid characterized by valinate or tert-leucinate moieties. In recent years, 5F-MDMB-PICA has been abused in the form of “spice-like” herbal incenses or electronic cigarette oil. A UHPLC-MS/MS method was developed to detect 5F-MDMB-PICA and its metabolites in human hair. Approximately 20 mg of hair was weighed and pulverized with methanol below 4°C. After ultrasonication, centrifugation and filtration, 200 μL of supernatant was placed into an autosampler vial and analyzed on a Waters Acquity UPLC HSS T3 column (100 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.8 μm particle size) using an acetonitrile-20 mmol/L ammonium acetate (0.1% formic acid, 5% acetonitrile) gradient with a run time of 8 min. The limit of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.5 to 5 pg/mg, and the lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) ranged from 1 to 5 pg/mg. The method was shown to be linear over a concentration range of 1–200 pg/mg. The linear correlation (R2) of the calibration curves for all analytes was >0.999. The accuracy varied from 95.4 to 107.4%, while the intra- and inter-day precision RSD values were 0.7–10.6% and 1.7–12.2%, respectively. Recoveries were within the range of 61.1–93.3%, and matrix effects were in the range of 19.1–102.6%. The validated method was successfully applied to the identification and quantification of 5F-MDMB-PICA and its metabolites in hair from authentic forensic cases.

Author(s):  
Jongsook Rhee ◽  
Jihyun Kim ◽  
Moonhee Jang ◽  
Ilchung Shi ◽  
Sangki Lee

Abstract This study evaluated hair samples from 28 subjects who had measurable ketamine levels among the samples requested from 2016 to 2017 into Seoul Institute National Forensic Service in Korea. Ketamine in the hair was extracted by using a solution of 1% hydrochloric acid in methanol for 16 h. Extracts were analyzed using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS). LC-MS-MS method was validated by determining the limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantitation (LOQ), linearity, intra- and inter-accuracy, precision, and matrix effects. In 59 ketamine-positive hair or hair segments from 28 ketamine abusers, the ketamine concentration was found to be in the range of 0.011-335.8 ng/mg (mean, 13.6; median, 1.8), and the norketamine concentration was found to be in the range of 0.001-35.7 ng/mg (mean, 7.5; median, 0.44). The ratio of norketamine to ketamine concentration in hair was in the range of 0.01-1.46 (mean, 0.34; median, 0.26). The distribution of ketamine concentration in hair samples was as follows: 0.01-0.1 ng/mg in 11 samples (18.6%), 0.1-5 ng/mg in 33 samples (55.9%), 5-10 ng/mg in 4 samples (6.8%), 10-15 ng/mg in 2 samples (3.4%), 15-20 ng/mg in 4 samples (6.8%), 40-45 ng/mg in 2 samples (3.4%), 45-50 ng/mg in 1 samples 1.7%) and >100 ng/mg in only 2 samples (3.4%). In the hair of ketamine-abusers, 26 of 28 subjects had simultaneously ketamine with detectable levels of other controlled drugs, including MDMA (n=9), MA (n=3), MDMA/MA (n=3), MDMA/PMA (n=3), MDMA/PMA/MA (n=2), cocaine (n=1), and other drugs (n=5, propofol, zolpidem or benzodiazepines). In most of the hair samples were detected ketamine with other controlled drugs: MDMA (60.7%), MA (28.6%), PMA(17.9%), zolpidem (17.9%), and propofol (14.3%) in the frequency of abuse. In conclusion, most of the ketamine-abusers (92.9%) would be polydrug abusers, who were concomitantly abusing other controlled substances.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britni Skillman ◽  
Sarah Kerrigan

Abstract Suvorexant (Belsomra®) is a novel dual orexin receptor antagonist used for the treatment of insomnia. The prevalence of suvorexant in forensic samples is relatively unknown, which demonstrates the need for robust analytical assays for the detection of this sedative hypnotic in forensic toxicology laboratories. In this study, suvorexant was isolated from whole blood using a simple acidic/neutral liquid–liquid extraction followed by analysis by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Matrix effects were evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively using various extraction solvents, proprietary lipid clean-up devices and source conditions. The method was validated in terms of limit of detection, limit of quantitation, precision, bias, calibration model, carryover, matrix effects and drug interferences. Electrospray is a competitive ionization process whereby compounds in the droplet compete for a limited number of charged sites at the surface. As such, it is capacity-limited, and LC–MS-based techniques must be carefully evaluated to ensure that matrix effects or coeluting drugs do not impact quantitative assay performance. In this report, we describe efforts to ameliorate such effects in the absence of an isotopically labeled internal standard. Matrix effects are highly variable and heavily dependent on the physico-chemical properties of the substance. Although there is no universal solution to their resolution, conditions at the electrospray interface can mitigate these issues. Using this approach, the LC–MS/MS assay was fully validated and limits of detection and quantitation of 0.1 and 0.5 ng/mL suvorexant were achieved in blood.


Author(s):  
Camila Scheid ◽  
Sarah Eller ◽  
Anderson Luiz Oenning ◽  
Eduardo Carasek ◽  
Josias Merib ◽  
...  

Abstract Synthetic drugs for recreational purposes are in constant evolution, and their consumption promotes a significant increase in intoxication cases, resulting in damaging public health. The development of analytical methodologies to confirm the consumption of illicit drugs in biological matrices is required for the control of these substances. This work exploited the development of an extraction method based on homogenous liquid–liquid microextraction with switchable hydrophilicity solvent (SHS) as extraction phase for the determination of the synthetic drugs 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine and N-methoxybenzyl-methoxyphenylethylamine derivates (25B, 25C and 25I) in postmortem blood, followed by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry in tandem. The optimized sample preparation conditions consisted of using 250 µL of ZnSO4 10% and 50 µL of NaOH 1 mol/L in the protein precipitation step; N,N-dimethylcyclohexylamine was used as SHS, 650 μL of a mixture of SHS:HCl 6 mol/L (1:1 v/v), 500 μL of whole blood, 500 μL of NaOH 10 mol/L and 1 min of extraction time. The proposed method was validated, providing determination coefficients higher than 0.99 for all analytes; limit of detection and limit of quantitation ranged from 0.1 to 10 ng/mL; intra-run precision from 2.16% to 9.19%; inter-run precision from 2.39% to 9.59%; bias from 93.57% to 115.71% and matrix effects from 28.94% to 51.54%. The developed method was successfully applied to four authentic postmortem blood samples from synthetic drugs users, and it was found to be reliable with good selectivity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Somshankar Dubey ◽  
Mahesh Duggirala

Objective: To develop a simple, rapid, sensitive and effective reverse phase ultra-performance liquid chromatographic method (RP-UPLC) for simultaneous quantification of lamivudine, abacavir and dolutegravir in pure and tablet dosage forms.Methods: Chromatographic separation was performed by using Waters-ACQUITY UPLC system equipped with auto sampler, photodiode array (PDA) detector, zodiac sil RP C18 (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 3.0 µm) column, phosphate buffer (pH 3.0) and methanol in the ratio of 30:70 %v/v have been delivered at a flow rate of 0.25 ml/min and the detection was carried out using a Ultraviolet (UV) detector at a wavelength of 260 nm at ambient column temperature. The mobile phase was used as diluent.Results: The retention time (Rt) for lamivudine, abacavir and dolutegravir were 1.763, 2.247 and 3.175 min respectively. A good linear response was obtained in the range of 15-75 µg/ml, 30-150 µg/ml and 2.5-12.5 µg/ml, respectively. The Limit of Detection (LOD) values were found to be 0.021, 0.330 and 0.038 µg/ml, respectively and the Limit of Quantitation (LOQ) values were 0.056, 1.320 and 0.095 µg/ml, respectively.Conclusion: It was concluded that the developed RP-UPLC method was effective, suitable and conducive for analyzing lamivudine, abacavir and dolutegravir in pharmaceutical formulations. The method was quantitatively evaluated in terms of precision, linearity, accuracy (recovery), selectivity and robustness in accordance with standard guidelines.


Author(s):  
Liying Zhou ◽  
Ping Xiang ◽  
Di Wen ◽  
Baohua Shen ◽  
Xin Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose In this study, we developed a very sensitive method for quantitative analysis of psilocin and psilocybin in hair samples of magic mushroom consumers. Methods The analyses were performed with pretreatments of samples, followed by ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography (LC) connected to a Q-Trap type tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). For LC, mobile phase (A) consisted of 0.1% formic acid in water, and mobile phase (B) was acetonitrile for gradient elution using a Acquity™ UPLC HSS T3 column. For MS/MS, electrospray ionization measurements in positive selected reaction monitoring mode were used. Results The calibration curves were linear from 5 to 500 pg/mg (r > 0.99) and no selectivity problems occurred. The limit of detection was 1 pg/mg, and the lower limit of quantitation was 5 pg/mg. The ranges of the matrix effects and recovery rates were 90.4–107% and 76.0–102%, respectively. Conclusions The concentrations of psilocin in two authentic hair were 161 and 150 pg/mg, respectively, and psilocybin was not detected from both samples. This method was also used to analyze the distribution of psilocin and psilocybin in seven hallucinogenic mushrooms. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of psilocin concentrations in hair samples of hallucinogenic mushroom consumers, and also our method is most sensitive for quantitative analysis of psilocin and psilocybin in hair samples.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Bawazeer ◽  
Khalid M. Badr El-Din ◽  
Ahmed M. Abdel-Megied

A simple, rapid, and validated UPLC method was developed for the simultaneous quantitation of paracetamol (PAR), tizanidine (TIZ), aceclofenac (ACF), and nimesulide (NIM) either in pure forms or in their different tablet dosage forms. Chromatographic separation was attained on an ACQUITY UPLC™ BEH C18 column (100 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) with a mobile phase consisting of 20 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) : acetonitrile in the proportion (60 : 40 v/v) isocratically pumped at a flow rate of 1.25 mL·min−1, and detection was monitored at 305 nm. All analytes were separated simultaneously at a retention time (tr) of 1.42, 2.31, 3.63, and 5.62 min for PAR, TIZ, ACF, and NIM, respectively, with a total run time less than 6.0 min. The proposed method was validated according to ICH guidelines with respect to accuracy, precision, linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantitation, and robustness. Linearity was obtained over a concentration range of 81.25–487.5, 0.5–3.5, 25–150, and 25–150 µg·mL−1 for PAR, TIZ, ACF, and NIM, respectively. The development method can be successfully employed in QC laboratories for the routine analysis of the investigated drugs in their new combination.


2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esam Bakir ◽  
Mohamed Gouda ◽  
Ahmed Alnajjar ◽  
Waleed E. Boraie

Abstract A simple and sensitive spectrofluorimetric method for determination of atenolol (ATE) using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was developed. The method is based on the quenching effect of atenolol on photoluminescence of AuNPs at λem = 705 nm. Variables affecting luminescence of gold nanoparticles such as the solvent, pH value and surfactant were studied and optimized. The method was preliminarily validated according to ICH guidelines. A linear correlation was recorded within the range of 1.0–10 mg mL−1 ATE with the coefficient of determination R2 of 0.999. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation for atenolol were found to be 0.87 and 2.64 mg mL−1, resp. Good recoveries in the range of 98.7–100.0 % were obtained for spiked samples. The proposed method was applied successfully to assaying atenolol in pharmaceuticals formulations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 705-711
Author(s):  
Lianguo Chen ◽  
Qinghua Weng ◽  
Yijing Lin ◽  
Xiaojie Lu ◽  
Zuoquan Zhong ◽  
...  

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the concentrations of khasianine in mouse whole blood sample and its application for the pharmacokinetics by a rapid, selective and sensitive ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method. Methods: The blood samples were preprocessed by one-step protein precipitation with acetonitrile. The study was performed on an ACQUITY I-Class UPLC system with a UPLC BEH column. Lannaconitine (internal standard, IS) and khasianine were gradient eluted by a mixture of acetonitrile and water with 0.1% formic acid at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. The mass spectrometer was equipped with an Electrospray Ionization (ESI) source in positive mode. The quantitative detection was performed in a multiple reaction monitoring modes at transitions m/z 722.4→70.7 for khasianine and m/z 585.3→119.9 for the corresponding IS. Results: The calibration curve was of good linearity ranging from 0.5 to 1000 ng/mL (r > 0.995). The Lower Limit of Detection (LLOD) and Lower Limit of Quantitation (LLOQ) were 0.2 and 0.5 ng/mL, respectively. The inter-day and intra-day precision (RSD%) were both less than 14%, and the accuracy ranged from 86.6% to 108.3%. The matrix effects were between 98.0% and 103.7%, and the average recovery was better than 67.4%. Conclusion: This assay established a sensitive, rapid, selective UPLC-MS/MS method which was successfully used for the pharmacokinetic study of khasianine in mouse blood, and the absolute availability of khasianine was 0.78% which exhibited a poor oral absorption.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-279
Author(s):  
Shweta G. Rangari ◽  
Nishikant A. Raut ◽  
Pradip W. Dhore

Background:The unstable and/or toxic degradation products may form due to degradation of drug which results into loss of therapeutic activity and lead to life threatening condition. Hence, it is important to establish the stability characteristics of drug in various conditions such as in temperature, light, oxidising agent and susceptibility across a wide range of pH values.Introduction:The aim of the proposed study was to develop simple, sensitive and economic stability indicating high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method for the quantification of Amoxapine in the presence of degradation products.Methods:Amoxapine and its degraded products were separated on precoated silica gel 60F254 TLC plates by using mobile phase comprising of methanol: toluene: ammonium acetate (6:3:1, v/v/v). The densitometric evaluation was carried out at 320 nm in reflectance/absorbance mode. The degradation products obtained as per ICH guidelines under acidic, basic and oxidative conditions have different Rf values 0.12, 0.26 and 0.6 indicating good resolution from each other and pure drug with Rf: 0.47. Amoxapine was found to be stable under neutral, thermal and photo conditions.Results:The method was validated as per ICH Q2 (R1) guidelines in terms of accuracy, precision, ruggedness, robustness and linearity. A good linear relationship between concentration and response (peak area and peak height) over the range of 80 ng/spot to 720 ng/spot was observed from regression analysis data showing correlation coefficient 0.991 and 0.994 for area and height, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) for area were found to be 1.176 ng/mL and 3.565 ng/mL, whereas for height, 50.063 ng/mL and 151.707 ng/mL respectively.Conclusion:The statistical analysis confirmed the accuracy, precision and selectivity of the proposed method which can be effectively used for the analysis of amoxapine in the presence of degradation products.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Somana Siva Prasad ◽  
G. V. Krishna Mohan ◽  
A. Naga Babu

In this study, a novel, simple and precise RP-HPLC method has been developed for the quantitative analysis of Lenalidomide (LLM) in pharmaceutical formulations using analytical quality by design approach. An X-bridge-C18 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm × 3.5 µ) with mobile phases containing a Potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate anhydrous buffer and methanol in the ratio of (90:10 v/v) and (35:65 v/v) are used for the estimation of LLM and its degradation products. The flow rate of 0.8 mL/min is maintained and all degradation studies are performed at 210 nm using photodiode array (PDA) detector. Method Validation is carried out according to International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines and the parameters namely; precision, accuracy, specificity, stability, robustness, linearity, limit of quantitation (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) are evaluated. The present developed RP-HPLC method shows the purity angle of peaks is less than their threshold angle, signifying that it to be suitable for stability studies. Hence, the developed method can be used for the successful separation of LLM and its impurities in the pharmaceutical dosage formulations.


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