Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
X-International Conference on Novel Psychoactive Substances, Abu Dhabi, Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri, 6 - 08 Kasım 2023, ss.1, (Özet Bildiri)
Introduction:
New psychoactive substances (NPS) has become a global issue with 134
countries and territories reporting seizures of at least one or more substances
from every continent. A total of 1,127 NPS have been reported worldwide as of
2022. The increasing chemical diversity and unprecedented substance numbers of
NPS make this phenomenon even more difficult to detect, monitor and understand
analytically. These synthetic substances containing more than one substance,
pose a global threat for public health and cause challenges for analytical
chemists, toxicologists, and clinicians due to their ever-changing chemical
structure. Urine as the most common used matrix for analytical toxicology
studies, is an invasive biological sample and allows a longer detection time for the
parent drugs and their metabolites. Considering
that the NPS recovered throughout Turkey are predominantly synthetic
cannabinoids and that these substances are constantly changing, it is a
necessity to develop an effective extraction method for urine which covers the
currently consumed synthetic cannabinoids. In view of sample extraction
techniques having a noteworthy contribution to analysis results, the aim of
this study was to compare the efficiency of the two most widely used
techniques, liquid-liquid (LLE) and solid-phase extraction (SPE) on the
detection of NPS focusing mostly on synthetic cannabinoids. In this study, the
comparison of extraction techniques was performed from urine by using liquid
chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) system.
Methods:
In order to compare the efficiency of the extraction, different LLE
and SPE procedures were evaluated in terms of recovery efficiency, accuracy,
and precision. A 10-point calibration was prepared in methanol. The reference
standards of synthetic cannabinoids and their metabolites, synthetic
cathinones, a tryptamine, and a phencyclidine-type substance were spiked at 0.5
ng/L (low) and 5 ng/L (high) levels. Each sample was analyzed in triplicate
using an LC-MS/MS system equipped with an electrospray ionization source
operating in positive ion mode. The selected SPE procedure was applied to 20
authentic urine samples taken from volunteers.
Results:
The optimized extraction method was validated in terms of
selectivity, linearity, the limit of detection, the limit of quantification,
accuracy, and precision. The linear range was achieved between 0.05-5 ng/L, and
correlation coefficient values of analytes were ≥0.999. Accuracy and precision
studies were satisfactory for most of the substances. Results showed that the
developed extraction method was suitable not only for synthetic cannabinoids
but also for synthetic cathinones, tryptamine (5-MeO-Mipt) and phencyclidine
type substance (ketamine) as well.
Conclusions:
NPS creates societal challenges that need to be addressed greatly
due to its widespread use and the speed of production-marketing-sales
processes. Understanding the cultural, economic, legal and medical aspects is
important for adequate health and/or policy interventions. To achieve all
these, effective, simultaneous extraction techniques and analytical methods are
in need as the compounds in the NPS market change. As a conclusion, the
developed extraction procedure is enabled the simultaneous determination of NPS
and their metabolites and also facilitates the practical monitoring of
substance use for toxicologists.