title: Simultaneous Determination of 11 Illicit Phenethylamines in Hair by LC-MS-MS: In Vivo Application.
abstract: Existing phenethylamines are a class of synthetic compounds that differ from each other only in small changes to a largely conserved chemical structure. The recreational and illicit use of phenethylamines is a widespread problem. A simple procedure for the simultaneous quantitative determination in hair of 11 phenethylamines that are officially recognized as illicit by Italian legislation (p-methoxyamphetamine; p-methoxymethamphetamine; 3,4,5-trimethoxyamphetamine; 2,5-dimethoxyamphetamine; 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine; 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylamphetamine; 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromoamphetamine; 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromophenethylamine; 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine; 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-n-propylthiophenethylamine) has been developed and validated. Extraction from the matrix was performed after incubation in methanolic HCl and filtered reconstituted extracts were injected into a liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry system (LC-MS-MS) without any further purification steps. This validated LC-MS-MS method has been used to determine the in vivo accumulation/retention of the above target analytes in hair after repeat oral administration to rats. This experiment further permitted investigation of the effect of pigmentation on the uptake of these phenethylamines by hair and the effect of hair pigmentation. The developed method could potentially be used for forensic and toxicological purposes, in the detection and quantitation of these illicit substances in human hair in workplace drug testing; drug-facilitated crime investigation; driver re-licensing; determining drug abuse history and postmortem toxicology.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica e Farmacia, Università di Sassari, Via Muroni 23/a, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nieddu
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica e Farmacia, Università di Sassari, Via Muroni 23/a, 07100 Sassari, Italy lburrai@uniss.it.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Burrai
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università di Sassari, Via Vienna 2, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Piera
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Demontis
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università di Sassari, Via Vienna 2, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Vittoria
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Varoni
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università di Sassari, Via Vienna 2, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Baralla
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Università di Sassari, Via Matteotti 60, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Trignano
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica e Farmacia, Università di Sassari, Via Muroni 23/a, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianpiero
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Boatto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002138:Calibration; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000592:standards; D006197:Hair / Q000378:metabolism*; D006200:Hair Color; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010627:Phenethylamines / Q000378:metabolism*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D051381:Rats; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D010627:Phenethylamines