title: A novel screening method for 64 new psychoactive substances and 5 amphetamines in blood by LC-MS/MS and application to real cases.
abstract: Identification and quantification of new psychoactive substances (NPS), both in biological and non-biological samples, represent a hard challenge for forensic toxicologists. NPS are increasingly emerging on illegal drug market. Many cases of co-consumption of NPS and other substances have also been reported. Hence, the development of analytical methods aiming at the detection of a broad-spectrum of compounds (NPS and "traditional" drugs) could be helpful. In this paper, a fully validated screening method in blood for the simultaneous detection of 69 substances, including 64 NPS (28 synthetic cannabinoids, 19 synthetic cathinones, 5 phenethylamines, 3 indanes, 2 piperazines, 2 tryptamines, 2 phencyclidine, methoxetamine, ketamine and its metabolite) and 5 amphetamines (amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA, MDA, 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-ethylamphetamine - MDEA-) by a dynamic multiple reaction monitoring analysis through liquid chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is described. This method is very fast, easy to perform and cheap as it only requires the deproteinization of 200μL of blood sample with acetonitrile. The chromatographic separation is achieved with a C18 column. The analysis is very sensitive, with limits of quantification ranging from 0.1 to 0.5ng/mL. The method is linear from 1 to 100ng/mL and the coefficient of determination (R(2)) was always above 0.9900. Precision and accuracy were acceptable at any quality control level and recovery efficiency range was 72-110%. Matrix effects did not negatively affect the analytical sensitivity. This method was successfully applied to three real cases, allowing identification and quantification of: mephedrone and methamphetamine (post-mortem); ketamine, MDMA and MDA (post-mortem); AB-FUBINACA (ante-mortem).
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vaiano
authors.affiliation: Unit of Forensic Toxicology (UoFT) - Department of Anatomical Histological, Forensic and Orthopaedic Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Electronic address: fra.busardo@libero.it.
authors.forename: Francesco P
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Busardò
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Palumbo
authors.affiliation: Unit of Forensic Toxicology (UoFT) - Department of Anatomical Histological, Forensic and Orthopaedic Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Chrystalla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kyriakou
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fioravanti
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Catalani
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mari
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, University of Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bertol
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000661:Amphetamine / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry; D001769:Blood; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D053593:Forensic Toxicology / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000737:chemistry*; D008297:Male; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000737:chemistry*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D000661:Amphetamine
keywords: Amphetamines; Blood screening; LC–MS/MS; NPS; NPS intoxication cases