Rapid and simple procedure for the determination of cathinones, amphetamine-like stimulants and other new psychoactive substances in blood and urine by GC–MS

Gilbert Mercieca, Sara Odoardi, Marisa Cassar, Sabina Strano Rossi*

*Autore corrispondente per questo lavoro

Risultato della ricerca: Contributo in rivistaArticolo in rivistapeer review

49 Citazioni (Scopus)

Abstract

In the last few years an increasing number of new psychoactive substances (NPS), with different chemical structures (of which 37% are stimulants), have been released into the illicit drug market. Their detection and identification in biological samples is hence of great concern. The aim of this work was to develop a high-throughput and rapid method for the determination of different classes of stimulants (amphetamine-type stimulants, cathinones, phenethylamines and ketamine analogues) from blood and urine samples using GC–MS. The proposed method allows the almost simultaneous derivatization and extraction of analytes from biological samples in a very short time, by using hexyl chloroformate as derivatization agent. The extraction of analytes was performed by Dispersive Liquid Liquid Microextraction (DLLME), a very rapid, cheap and efficient extraction technique that employs microliter amounts of organic solvents. The chromatographic method allowed for the separation of 26 stimulants including positional isomers (3-MMC and 4-MMC). The method was validated on urine and blood samples with the ability to detect and quantify all analytes with satisfactory limits of detection (LODs) ranging between 1 and 10 ng/mL, limits of quantification (LOQs) between 2 and 50 ng/mL, selectivity and linearity (5–1000 ng/mL). The method was then applied to real samples from forensic cases, demonstrating its suitability for the screening of a wide number of stimulants in biological specimens.
Lingua originaleEnglish
pagine (da-a)494-501
Numero di pagine8
RivistaJournal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis
Volume149
DOI
Stato di pubblicazionePubblicato - 2018

Keywords

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Biological samples
  • Clinical Biochemistry
  • Clinical toxicology
  • Dispersive Liquid Liquid Microextraction
  • Forensic toxicology
  • Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
  • New psychoactive substances
  • Pharmaceutical Science
  • Spectroscopy

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