title: Dried haematic microsamples and LC-MS/MS for the analysis of natural and synthetic cannabinoids.
abstract: Synthetic cannabinoids are new psychoactive substances (NPS) with similar effects when compared to natural ones found in Cannabis derivatives. They have rapidly integrated into the illicit market, often sold as alternatives under international control. The need to identify and quantify an unprecedented and growing number of new compounds represents a unique challenge for toxicological, forensic and anti-doping analysis. Dried blood spots have been used within the bioanalytical framework in place of plasma or serum, in order to reduce invasiveness, lower sample size, simplify handling, storage and shipping of samples and to facilitate home-based and on-field applications. However, DBS implementation has been limited mainly by concerns related to haematocrit effect on method accuracy. Volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS™), a second generation dried miniaturized sampling technology, has been developed just in order to eliminate haematocrit effect, thus providing accurate sampling but still granting feasible sample processing. An original LC-MS/MS method was herein developed and validated for the analysis of THC and its 2 main metabolites, together with 10 representative synthetic cannabinoids in both DBS and VAMS dried microsamples. The ultimate goal of this work is to provide highly innovative DBS and VAMS analytical protocols, whose performances were extensively optimized and compared, in order to provide effective and alternative tools that can be applied for natural and synthetic cannabinoid determination, in place of classical analytical strategies.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmaco-Toxicological Analysis, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology (FaBiT), Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Protti
authors.affiliation: Neoteryx LLC, Torrance, CA, USA.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rudge
authors.affiliation: Sport Medicine, Enna Local Health Unit, Enna, Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo Eliseo
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Sberna
authors.affiliation: Drug Prevention and Health Branch, Division for Operations, United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Gilberto
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gerra
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmaco-Toxicological Analysis, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology (FaBiT), Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. Electronic address: laura.mercolini@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mercolini
mesh_terms: D002186:Cannabinoids / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D059788:Dried Blood Spot Testing / Q000379:methods*; D004355:Drug Stability; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D016014:Linear Models; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D002186:Cannabinoids
keywords: Dried blood spot (DBS); LC–MS/MS; Natural cannabinoids; Synthetic cannabinoids; Volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS)