title: Screening new psychoactive substances in urban wastewater using high resolution mass spectrometry.
abstract: Analysis of drug residues in urban wastewater could complement epidemiological studies in detecting the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS), a continuously changing group of drugs hard to monitor by classical methods. We initially selected 52 NPS potentially used in Italy based on seizure data and consumption alerts provided by the Antidrug Police Department and the National Early Warning System. Using a linear ion trap-Orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometer, we designed a suspect screening and a target method approach and compared them for the analysis of 24 h wastewater samples collected at the treatment plant influents of four Italian cities. This highlighted the main limitations of these two approaches, so we could propose requirements for future research. A library of MS/MS spectra of 16 synthetic cathinones and 19 synthetic cannabinoids, for which analytical standards were acquired, was built at different collision energies and is available on request. The stability of synthetic cannabinoids was studied in analytical standards and wastewater, identifying the best analytical conditions for future studies. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first stability data on NPS. Few suspects were identified in Italian wastewater samples, in accordance with recent epidemiological data reporting a very low prevalence of use of NPS in Italy. This study outlines an analytical approach for NPS identification and measurement in urban wastewater and for estimating their use in the population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, IRCCS-Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Via La Masa 19, 20156, Milan, Italy. iria.gonzalez@usc.es.|Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Sciences, IIAA-Institute for Food Analysis and Research, University of Santiago de Compostela, Constantino Candeira S/N, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. iria.gonzalez@usc.es.
authors.forename: Iria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: González-Mariño
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, IRCCS-Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Via La Masa 19, 20156, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gracia-Lor
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, IRCCS-Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Via La Masa 19, 20156, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Renzo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bagnati
authors.affiliation: Thermo Fisher Scientific, 355 River Oaks Parkway, San Jose, CA, 95134, USA.
authors.forename: Claudia P B
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, IRCCS-Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Via La Masa 19, 20156, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Ettore
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zuccato
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, IRCCS-Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Via La Masa 19, 20156, Milan, Italy. sara.castiglioni@marionegri.it.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Castiglioni
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities; D007558:Italy; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: High resolution mass spectrometry; Liquid chromatography; New psychoactive substances; Urban wastewater