title: Biosampling strategies for emerging drugs of abuse: towards the future of toxicological and forensic analysis.
abstract: The term "new psychoactive substances" refers to emerging drugs of abuse whose chemical structure and psychoactive effects are similar to other already known compounds, often providing a "legal" alternative to internationally regulated drugs and mostly available via on-line retail sites. There are several categories of new psychoactive substances, such as synthetic cannabinoids, cathinone analogues, phenethylamines, tryptamines, and the need to identify and quantify an unprecedented and growing number of new compounds represents a unique challenge for toxicological and forensic analysis. The purpose of this review is to highlight biosampling, sample preparation and analysis of the most important classes of emerging drugs of abuse in biological matrices, focusing on alternatives to classical blood and urine "in tube" approach, still representing the standard routine for bioanalysis, despite inherent flaws regarding handling, stability and process feasibility. Chromatographic techniques coupled to mass spectrometry are usually exploited to identify and quantify new psychoactive substances; due to their high sensitivity and selectivity, it is possible to determine low concentrations not only in plasma and urine, but also in alternative matrices like dried blood spots, oral fluid, hair, other body fluids and tissues. Current literature on analytical methodologies applied to these samples is still limited and a more thorough validation is often required, including a comparison among the results obtained from conventional approaches and from innovative strategies, in order to determine their actual suitability.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmaco-Toxicological Analysis, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology (FaBiT), Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Via Belmeloro 6, 40126 Bologna Italy. Electronic address: laura.mercolini@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mercolini
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmaco-Toxicological Analysis, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology (FaBiT), Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Via Belmeloro 6, 40126 Bologna Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Protti
mesh_terms: D001826:Body Fluids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D015198:Designer Drugs / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D005544:Forecasting; D053593:Forensic Toxicology / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D015198:Designer Drugs; D013287:Illicit Drugs
keywords: Alternative biological matrices; Biosampling; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; New psychoactive substances; Sample pretreatment